Unleash the Kitsune
by The Swordslinger
Summary: DC-AU/Marvel-AU/Naruto cross. Heroes are villains, and viceversa. There's only one thing Naruto can be good for: fighting. When someone finds his potential, to let out all of that power for the best, the world can truly change for the better. However, others like their own set of rules and will do what they can to prevent that. Strong, carefree Naruto x harem.
1. Chapter 1

I OWN NOTHING, and thank god I am on the right path here.

Note: Naruto is a doofus; think of Vash the Stampede from Trigun, always trying to laugh his problems away like a goofy idiot only to be put from the frying pan to the fire in a split second before he has to badass his way out of things.

**XXXXXX**

Making new friends

Fourteen year old Naruto had landed who knew where. His orange pants were shred, his jacket gone, his black muscle shirt had several gashes on it, and only a few things remained of personal matter for him: his necklace from his Granny, and his headband, which was loosely hanging from his right hand as a slash crossed over it. He was bruised, beaten, burned and after a long-ass fight he was somehow alive…Oh, and he was covered in bandages. Good!

Now regaining his senses the blond found himself in the middle of a jungle, inside some tent. The tent's main entrance was open, showing him a path to a campfire and several men in strange uniforms eating and speaking to themselves in a language he didn't understand at all.

That's when he first noticed someone standing by his side, reading a light porn magazine, and with his legs crossed. Sergeant Emil Blonsky, currently enjoying the new catalogs of furnace in the Playboy mansion, sensed something was off. He put down his reading and looked at the boy his captain, fellow soldiers and he found that morning floating down a river. The Russian man cracked a large shark-like grin. That unnerved the blond a bit as he inspected the guy for any threat, his hair was slicked back, he needed a shave, and he was dressed as a soldier: green pants and jacket, a camouflage green vest with several pouches, black boots, and a Saiga shotgun being carefully cradled in his arms.

"Who are you, old man?" the boy asked curiously.

Blonsky's grin disappeared as it was replaced with a perplexed look, "**Umm… What?**"

"Say what?"

"Maybewe could talk." Replied another man.

The newcomer was big. Big as in built like an ox, carrying what had to be around fifty pounds worth of armor, and several more in the broadsword and assault rifle on his back, the dual machine guns on his hips, the pistols on his thighs and the pouches filled with ammo and grenades. Naruto could see the man had gone through a battle, he was breathing a bit unevenly and some sweat covered his forehead but that was it. And he was obviously a veteran, he had to be in his early forties, had white hair, a beard and an eye-patch covering his right eye to show he had gone through a lot to make his very presence intimidating. The man was also clad, as said before, in a strange body fitting armor, it was mostly black but its knees, ankles and gauntlets were painted orange (Young Justice armor with the weapons from Injustice: Gods Among Us)… Naruto liked Captain Slade Wilson's taste.

But the kid mentally slapped his forehead, remembering what he had to do now, "Hey, so do you know where am I? I need to get back to the Elemental Nations. If you're from the Iron Country, could you tell some guy named Mifune… Mi… Did his name have 'Mi' in it? Man, I was never good researching for big shots in foreign countires… Anyways, could you tell the leader of your village to inform the Leaf where I am?"

Slade looked down at the boy, feeling a slight dread of telling him, "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about, kid… Do you have a home address, something we could go by to return you home?"

"_They can't._"

Naruto suddenly snapped his head forward to see a strange boy maybe a few years older than him walk into the tent. The boy was very, very skinny, and had on a three pieces suit with a black tie: dress black pants with matching shoes, a white buttoned shirt and a black over-coat. The kid had an angular face, weirdly arched eyebrows and the weirdest hairstyle the blond had ever seen: it was a bowl-haircut and with two bangs at the side of his head that looked like devil-horns. He also had long, sharp, black fingernails. And last but not least he was holding and petting a cat in his arms, a domestic cat with ginger fur, tiger stripes and white underbelly wearing a simple black collar to label it to its master.

But what terrified the blond was how Slade had stopped moving, and he noted how the magazine Blonsky had read had been thrown aside, finding itself floating in the air. Time was frozen.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked/ordered, "Where am I?"

"Such an unfortunate anomaly… And those damn geezers forced me to take care of it..." The boy said, trailing off cryptically before bowing to Naruto, his cat still being petted in his arms, "My true name, if you must know, is Klarion the Witch Boy. I am a Lord of Chaos…"

"What kind of title is that?" Naruto asked, seriously freaked out by someone who could freeze time. He wanted to leave but he didn't know where he was. He was surrounded by trees with this strange teen as his only moving company, "Tell me where I am! I can't afford to be lost right now, I need to get back home and tell them- Ack!" the kid found that he had a few cracked ribs due to his sudden movement.

The black haired boy shook his head, "You are more lost than you realize, and your fight with your opponent has indeed ended. You weren't even among the living, kid."

Naruto wasn't the brightest, but it didn't take a genius to understand that he was being told that he was dead, "I'm dead?" He said in disbelief, "Th-There's no way… I know that Sasuke-."

"-Is dead. By your hand." Klarion said solemnly.

Naruto looked down with a sigh, grabbing his own hand with which he had ended his enemy's life, "Good… I didn't want him to hurt anyone out of some stupid vengeance… Wait a minute! Where's the damn fox?!"

"Inside you, as a part of you." Klarion said, moving a finger at the blond boy's gut. It soon flashed red, illuminating the mark that once sealed the demon, but it immediately died out, "Such a strange anomaly in the ripples of chaos… You are no longer human, and yet still have your humanity in you…"

"Huh?"

"You're, as your people would say, a hanyo."

"Huh?!"

"You're a half-breed demon, kid."

"HUH?!"

"STOP IT WITH THE 'HUH', YOU MORON!" the Lord of Chaos roared, crimson fire surrounding him as his eyes shrunk, turning into beady white objects that stared right into his soul.

Naruto's brain could only give one response at his most eloquent moment in a situation like this: "Huh?"

Klarion face-palmed, "Teekl, I'd say those old geezers want me to suffer an aneurism if I weren't an embodiment of chaos…"

"Meow."

"Ugh, fine…" the witch boy said, sighing inwardly before snapping his fingers. Instantly, Naruto found himself staring at a floating contract with a brush floating at its side. "Kid, I am sorry but you'll have to sign that. This contract strictly bounds you to this world or else you may die. But your stay comes at the cost of never returning to your own world."

"What?! Wait, no! I-I…" Naruto looked down, trying to think of some reason to stay in his old home. He'd certainly miss a lot of people, his dream may never come true, and he was terrified what the Akatsuki could do to… wait, the Kyuubi was no more. He had killed the only thing Orochimaru wanted. And at least Tsunade had grown to be quite responsible. It was tempting, very tempting. But, "What if I want to return… There are some assholes where I live and I don't want them hurting my friends."

Klarion sighed, snapped his fingers and used one to point a scar inside Naruto's main of hair, "You don't remember, do you?"

"What are you talking about?" the blond asked as he pushed the hand aside, now feeling the scar with his own hand.

"It seems he did hit you hard enough… The memories from two years have vanished."

"Two years…?! Wait, does that mean… what does that mean?" he asked, genuinely confused to levels the Lord of Chaos had to face-palm to.

"You didn't kill Sasuke at the Valley of the End… You killed Sasuke at the Valley of the End as well as the ones pulling the strings that made your life so miserable." Then the scrawny boy tapped his own head, "But when you delivered the final blow, they also tried to kill you… Hmm, could it be that to prevent yourself from dying, the fox healed you to the point of making you two years younger, the point where your memories are still intact?"

"What?" Now Naruto's head was hurting.

"Perhaps it is for the best, kid… I'm gonna be honest. Even if you wanted to, there is no home for you to return. Not even friends."

"W-Wait, you mean they're all…"

"Yes, both the world and their lives. You went berserk when that brat proclaimed that to fulfill his destiny he'd have to kill everyone. And that's what he did. Kids, women, you name it, all of them died at his hands because he saw them all as traitors and unworthy of HIS Uchiha clan. That's when you snapped and killed him… He tried to kill you back, but you were faster. And now, here you are…"

"I… I need to sit this through…" the blond said, massaging his damaged scalp. He then smiled sadly at the witch boy, "Thanks, nii-san… But, could you give me some time to think? You said I need that contract to stay here, right? But what if I want to meet the others?"

"You'll die if you stay here too long, if you return to your world there would be nothing but a wasteland, and if you wanted to meet your friends, that'd mean crossing to the other side, and there's no turning back from that." Klarion said, straight to the point and in the off-chance the kid felt sentimental.

"No… I wouldn't return to my world… Memories and emotions would weight me down." the blond curled his hand into a fist, "But, I know my friends, as few as they were, would want me to keep on fighting… I want to fight, but… for what?"

Klarion smiled, "There's always a reason to fight for." He then snapped his fingers, the contract disappearing, "If you want to stay, then call me and we'll sign the contract."

"I never said I wanted to leave." Naruto said, stopping Klarion dead in his tracks, "I just felt that… at least, I wanted to meet my friends again, shinigami-nii-san."

"I'm a Lord of Chaos." The witch boy corrected, "I control chaos, making sure it doesn't go haywire. I don't have any real control over death, the only reason I'm here is because you have broken several laws of chaos and physics to get here. I don't have the heart - metaphorically, since I don't possess a physical heart – to leave you to your luck roaming in a new world where you'd die." He handed the contract to the blond, "Now, will you sign, kid?"

"Hey, I have a name. It's Uzumaki Naruto." The blond said, putting his name on the paper.

Klarion bowed once again, "That'll be all for now. I have cakes waiting for me… And… good luck…" the witch boy said, starting to leave but awkwardly stopping to wave goodbye over his shoulder to the blond.

"Hey." Naruto said, stopping Klarion for a second time. "Tell me, what do you think I should do?" he motioned to the still time-frozen soldiers, "Should I trust them?"

Klarion pondered for a good five seconds before being honest, "Well, I suppose. These two soldiers have worked their entire lives to protect the innocents. That's the reason why I dropped you nearby… Though as near as I could." He said, not wanting to bring in the fact that the boy had landed on a river face-first. Dimensional trespassing wasn't an exact science for someone with magic. Even this time stop spell was made by greater forces, AKA, his bosses.

The blond then nodded, "Thanks."

With that, Klarion banished, and time once again flowed forward. "Kid?" Slade asked, confused by the slightly far-off look the blond seemed to have for a second.

"I… I don't have a home." The boy finally said.

"I see…" the captain said. He then turned to his sergeant, "**Blonsky, could you bring him some food?**" the soldier nodded and went to fetch some bowls of soup and roasted beef. The beef came from any animals the soldiers could hunt to regain strength. Naruto discovered that roasted snake tasted good. He ate until he finally felt some energy returning. It helped now knowing two years of his memory had been wiped, he had killed someone he once saw as a rival, and that he was alone. Slade had another question, though, "How did you end up in the river, kid?"

Naruto thought it best to tell the truth, but strain it as realistic as possible, "I was in a war in my own homeland… Everyone's dead." He said, helping himself to another serving of anaconda.

"So you're a child soldier." Slade said, trying to get into another topic.

Naruto nodded, "Yes, I've trained my butt off since I was a kid to be the best. But… we were betrayed… I killed the one responsible, but a bit too late…"

Slade hummed to himself, '_He has an interesting emotional strength if he can say that. He's gone through a lot, that's obvious with how we found him. He must be skilled if he went to a war and survived most of his bones being broken. I wonder… Well, he doesn't have a home, and he is a soldier with potential._'

XXXXXX

A few days later, in the airport of Alaska one Rose Wilson, daughter of the fearsome Slade Wilson and currently working as a "Private Security Provider", AKA, a mercenary. She, like her father, had white hair, hers was long and fell to the middle of her back. She was currently dressed in a three piece suit: gray pants, coat, a white shirt and a yellow tie. On her feet she had high heel shoes, and on her right hand was a large suitcase that while disguised to look like a case for some musical instrument, it held weaponry she'd never leave at home. And she was just a sixteen years old. Being given birth by one of the best soldiers to live and being trained by said best soldier to ever live do make anyone very dangerous.

However, Rose was certainly unprepared to watch the cargo helicopter her father arrived in drop not only his father and his subordinates, but also a whiskered blond boy. Said boy was cue, she had to admit that, and he wore some of the soldiers' spare clothes, making him look ridiculous with the very baggy uniform. At least it was better than his shredded clothes.

'_That explains why he asked me to make sure the guest room was ready._' She said to herself as her dad walked to her, wearing a simple black suit with a white shirt, and hugged her.

"It's been a while, Rose."

"Did you bring me anything?" she asked with a playful smile before looking at the boy.

"He's Uzumaki Naruto, our new guest and, for the time being, a disciple."

Rose's eyes widened, "Wait, what?! I thought you never took disciples!"

Her father chuckled, moving an arm up and rolling his sleeve to show a cast, "Well, it goes like this…"

(Flashback.)

"So, how about a little fight, kid?" Slade asked out of the blue as morning rose.

"Why would I wanna fight you, old man?" the kid asked as he looked lazily at the older man, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"I'm curious as to how good you are as a soldier. How about this? If you can hit me, you can come with me to my own home and I'd willingly teach you some of my techniques. If you were to lose before laying any harm on me, well, I'll leave it up to you to decide what to do."

Naruto froze in his tracks and turned towards Slade with a questioning look, "Really? You want to fight me?"

"Hand-to-hand. It's the basis of all combat after all. Since I'm not using my weapons that'll even our fight seeing as you're injured." Slade said cracking his knuckles as Naruto – still in his shredded clothes - started stretching himself out, "Give me your very best shot. I'll tell you when to stop."

Blonsky instantly grew excited, "**Ladies, the captain's gonna fight, come here this instant and don't miss it!**" faster than one could say "Ready" the soldiers ran out of their own tents and formed a circle around the campfire where Slade and Naruto would fight.

Seeing that Naruto was ready to fight the captain proceeded to bark the order to go, "Begin!"

Hearing Slade say to begin, Naruto wasted no time and went right for the knockout right off the bat. Slade grunted as he immediately sprang to the defensive, surprised at Naruto's speed, _'I know grown men don't even move that fast!_' He avoided a wild right hand directed at his head and decided to see how the boy took damage, lashing out with a tight jab-hook combination that took advantage of the older man's height and reach.

Naruto took the two punches right in the face and let out a growl signifying that he acknowledged taking the damage before coming right back in for more. He was fast, but Slade was sharp and precise with his moves, '_He's fourteen yet moves fast enough to be considered a metahuman_.' He mused, keeping away from Naruto as the boy threw everything he had at Slade. Kicking and punching from every angle, but his attacks were all far too straight, _'My brother may be this fast with his healing factor. Still the kid's no slouch. But his moves are pretty much his own instincts at work. That's no good_.'

_'Who is this old guy_?' Naruto thought as he pressed his attack forward, which was a bad idea as the white haired man took his chance to deliver a solid jab, but it didn't stop the boy. Slade wasn't trying to actually knock him out or hurt him, he was testing the kid, _'Damn it, he's really good. The guy's playing with me!'_

That time was very bad to be distracted by one's own train of thought, as the blond discovered when Slade thought the test had given him all the information he needed and delivered a deep, powerful hook right to the boy's gut, knocking him on his backside. The whiskered youth hacked out a cough or two, but got back up and set himself in a defensive stance, deciding to make Slade attack him.

"Your mistake, boy. An opponent must never set the pace." Slade advised before taking the opening in the boy's sloppy stance. The kitsune dodged a jab, but the elder man soon round-kicked him in the ribs. The kid tried to counter with a punch but there wasn't enough room to do so. Soon Slade grabbed Naruto's punching wrist and wrapping his free arm around Naruto's neck from the front, a quick pop of his hips led to Naruto being thrown over Slade's body to the ground hard. Slade backed away and crossed his arms, "Is that your best? I told you to go all out." The older soldier taunted, all too see Naruto's true strength.

Naruto growled again, getting upset. He understood from the talks they had been having that Slade was a soldier, one of the best, and losing a fight against this guy without even hitting him… there was no way in Hell that'd happen. "You want my best? I've still got my own tricks!"

Instead of charging him again as Slade expected, except with more ferocity than before, Naruto lifted his hands, putting his fingers in his best technique.

Slade's good eye widened as he saw four identical copies of Naruto suddenly appear, indistinguishable from the original, "**What the fuck**?" Slade said in English, this being the first time he said such a blasphemy due to him now being purely shocked. '_What is that? Magic? No wait… he said he was a ninja… I didn't know the folklore could be accurate on something like this._'

"I'm ending this fight." The blond said with determination as he and his clones charged at the elder soldier. The soldiers were just as shocked as their captain.

'_You gotta be shitting me_!' Slade thought. The five blondes rushed towards Slade, forcing him to rapidly backpedal away from the wave of punches and kicks coming relentlessly against him.

The fight continued on for hours. And Slade felt truly terrified at the thought that Naruto was injured, if he had been at his full health and his clones were too he would have had to keep his weapons. He had his armor on, but the kids punched and kicked with the force or an adult rampaging rhino. He fought back as best he could, the soldiers cheering for both of them and placing bets. The fight lasted until both the soldier and the kid had burned all their energies.

Dropping to the ground, Slade saw that once Naruto was out of energy so where his clones, which banished in clouds of smoke. The kid was on his back, panting heavily, and the experienced soldier had worked a sweat, "Damn… it... You're certainly stubborn… trying to beat me… no matter what…" He panted at the unresponsive Naruto, who was too busy getting some air to his aching lungs, "Still… you are one scary kid. I wonder what kind of weapons training you have."

"Just… my… fists…" the kid panted.

"I can see that…" Slade said as rubbed his stomach, he could swear a rib had to be cracked, and his right arm also sported a very serious bruise, "You're not human, are you?"

The kid smirked to himself, "What of it…? I still won… the bet… old man…"

"Point…" Slade admitted; he thought over Naruto's abilities as his soldiers picked him and the boy, '_He's fast, he's strong, but he's too straight forward, his technique is lacking and he doesn't use anything but his own animalistic instincts for anything that comes his way. Those clones make up for that. But if I could exploit that sixth sense he seems to have when dealing with nearby danger…_' He shook his head in disbelief, he didn't get any answers out of the fight, just a whole new set of questions about Naruto.

However, he made a bet, and the idea of this kid being stronger with proper discipline was terrifying and awe-inspiring.

(Flashback end.)

"You have got to be kidding me." Rose said as she and her father walked in their home with Naruto following. She and her father spoke in English to avoid making Naruto feel uncomfortable. "An injured kid managed to give you a fight? Even if you held back, that's just… wow…"

Her father nodded, "Yes, give him some time to adapt, grow, and even understand his own powers better and… Well, this kid could be our savior against the Justice League." The then let out a weary sigh, "Let's just make sure he doesn't meet your uncle."

Rose's eyes widened, her uncle and this kid together… "Oh crap…"

Screams were heard from the kitchen. Slade face-palmed as he walked to find a man wearing a black military uniform with a red bulletproof vest, a red mask all over his face with black spots around his eyes like a raccoon's and a blond kid holding him in a headlock while he held said blond kid in a headlock too.

The man's eyes widened from his mask, "Yo, bro! Hey, say… is this kid yours? Because his headlocks are as strong as yours…" he said in his last breath while applying more pressure to the blond boy's neck.

"Wade…" Slade muttered with a glare that made both the kid and the man loosen the grip on their headlocks.

"Slade…" the man identified as Wade said, he waited, but with the silence he shook his head as best he could in the headlock. "No, bro, you got it wrong! You're supposed to say my name next, then I say yours and so on- Ack! You sure it's not your kid?!" the man in red and black asked when said boy applied pressure once again.

"**Hey, old man! This guy popped out of nowhere and said something weird about 'chimichanga' or whatever he calls it, and then he attacked me when I was eating.**" The kid said in Japanese.

"He ate my chimichangas! I mean, I don't like them, I just like saying it. Chimichanga, chimichanga, chimichanga… Man, it never gets old! Wait, what was I saying again… Oh yes, he ate my chimichangas!" he then looked at the kid with a doubtful expression, and spoke in Japanese too, "**You speak weaboo?**"

"**What's a weaboo?**" the kid replied.

Slade turned, looked at his daughter and let out a sigh of dread, "I'm gonna go get me some alcohol in my office. Do me a favor, if your uncle tries to influence the kid into his antics, cut his legs off."

Rose, a bit unnerved, spoke as best she could to try to avoid upsetting her father any further, but someone ruined that, "Hey, pops! Where are the chimichangas?!"

Rose chuckled, "Hehe… Uncle Wade invited his daughter… Wanda's using your office right now to watch TV."

Slade glared at his brother, as if the man in the mask had committed the worst of sins, "What did I ever do to you? Honest, what did I do to deserve this?"

Wade raised a brow, "Being an awesome and loving big bro?"

Slade turned to the boy, "**Naruto, strangle him.**"

With a strong choke Wade was passed out on the floor. Needless to say, the kid hadn't needed to be told twice.

XXXXXX

(Three years later. Naruto, age 17)

By this time, Naruto's understanding of the world he lived in was as good as it was going to be. The strange things that people used to move around such as automobiles and aircrafts threw him off (When first riding the chopper that brought him to Washington the boy had held a bag the entire travel to deposit his stomach's contents from time to time), but it took him some time, and knowing Wade a bit better, to enjoy it all. His first experiences of fun could be mostly related to Wade bringing him to town when Slade wasn't teaching him about combat.

He learned much of the country he was residing in, the United States of America which Alaska was a part of, and what being from another country, or dimension in his case, meant. His education involved a lot of educational videotapes, but once again Wade came to the rescue for some fun. Naruto learned to like the insane red and black clad man, who like someone the blond had met in his life never took off his mask. Naruto once tried to take it off, but it resulted on a fight that somehow included a rubber chicken and pie as weapons before Slade put both his brother and disciple through some serious grinding sessions for messing his living room for the eighteenth time that year.

Speaking of training, Naruto was learning both from Slade and from his own memories. He had consulted the man about having lost some memories from his past, the doctors said it would come either eventually or through some trigger. Strangely enough, the trigger was meditation. If he focused, Naruto could make out vague hints of his own developing power, there for him to grab, but it took time and effort to regain his abilities. He also remembered most of what he did, his training, making friends, meeting his family… and even the bad parts when Sasuke and Madara ruined his life like it was their job.

Currently, he was cross-legged outside of Slade's house. The place was as secured as Fort Knox, despite being in the middle of a snowy forest. As he focused he calmly raised a hand and watched a perfectly crafted Rasengan in it. It took him a year to do it, but it was worth it and perfect for experimenting new tricks and train his own chakra control.

He smiled, it had been a long time since he arrived, he hadn't met that Klarion boy again. For now it felt good to train, to keep his mind off serious things. He had also changed greatly, even losing his baby fat and growing five feet and ten inches tall. His physique was stronger, a bit buffer but he was still lean. His hair had grown longer, neck-length, and was always on a mop hair-style while still having some of its former spikiness here and there. His clothing had been replaced: black military boots, pants and opened jacket with an orange muscle shirt hugging the well developed body of a martial artist. He carried his necklace all the time and, due to the damages his headband had, he wore a black military hat, but with a certain metal plate on its forehead.

He was also armed, having a simple wakizashi on a holster in his right thigh. The short sword was rather simple, it didn't have a guard, its handle and sheath were red and the blade was made from a strange metal alloy he didn't understand well what it was. Slade, Wade and Rose taught him how to fight with it, making him spare with Wade's daughter, Wanda.

Wanda was… Like they say, like father, like daughter. She was playful, energetic and loved to have fun over work despite working along her cousin as a private army who protected any country in need of their aid. She was actually his age, and a bit unnerving. Supposedly, her mother was some Inez Temple, also known as Outlaw, a mercenary who loved money and her father had an affair with. Details were never explained to him, but he knew when to shut his cake-socket.

Also, it seemed about time he got moving. He was told that there was a mission for him. He had been asked by Slade if he wanted to join him in his little defense mercenary group called the Fatale Strike. With a name that kick-ass how could Naruto say no? That and it'd give him money and would stop Wade from calling him a freeloader.

Fatal Strike was basically a mercenary organization that worked with the government and the world to give them protection from threats far beyond simple human capabilities. Naruto had already been asked to join in, but he said no. First he wanted to have his strength back, and now that he had it and more he felt excited about a real mission.

"Hey, nee-san!" he shouted to Rose, who was busy sharpening her own katanas, "Where's the old man? I wanted to go to my mission as soon as possible."

Rose smiled, "Down the hall, Naruto. And be careful, this will be a solo mission. If my father trusts you this much, then please don't let him down."

The blond smirked, "Hey, when did I ever let him down?"

Rose raised a finger as she listed the following, "The BBQ last year when you took gasoline instead of oil, then there's that time you were supposed to keep my uncle locked and he made a rave party in here, oh, and my favorite, that time Wanda taught you how to dress properly and you walked out in-"

"Yeah, I'd rather not remember that last one." The boy said with a sigh.

A few moments later, Naruto found himself in the spacious office Slade owned and that served as a briefing room for any member of Fatal Strike that had to talk to the boss, AKA, Slade. The kid sat in one of the comfy chair in front of the well elaborated ebony desk as Slade passed him a file. The mission was simple: protect a museum. Now, Naruto would have groaned in anger at having such a boring-sounding mission, until watching a picture: a red haired girl.

She was beautiful, though, her eyes were a beautiful emerald green and her crimson hair was in puffy dual pigtails. She was petite, about a head and half shorter than him, had a slim body, nice medium B-cups still developing and dressed neither unfashionable nor trendy: a black mini-skirt, a green long-sleeved blouse, ankle high white socks and black shoes. But what stood out the most was her exotic green skin; the same green one would see in plants and leafs that was some shades darker in her lovely lips (Her looks from The Batman but the hair being in those puffy dual bun like pigtails).

"That's our client." Slade stated, "Her name is Pamela Isley, along some of the humanitarian environmentalists in Gotham she managed to make a movement to return the flora to the parks of the city as well as many other places. The city's mayor, Oswald Cobblepot, is also on this. However, they seem to have trouble with some of the junkyards owned by one Bruce Wayne. The guy is fishy as he is, but now he plans to make a meeting with Miss Isley to seal a deal in the museum to promote the preservation of nature. Of course, she's smart and doesn't trust Mr. Wayne. Naruto, your mission is to protect her and that deal at any cost. It is one of our lower class missions, but since Gotham is not one of the safest places on this world, we can't be too sure. Don't let your guard down… Are you listening to me?"

Naruto had had his gaze fixed on the redhead, but he absentmindedly raised a thumb up, "Protect the redhead cutie, got it."

You see, despite being distracted, Naruto had learned how to get the information necessary for living and tune off the unimportant things. Such trick was mastered by Wade, who passed it unto his daughter and now unto Naruto. Since the man was known for being insane and annoying every living being he came into contact with, he decided to develop a method to get the important bits out of a conversation before being random and working on someone's nerves.

However, even when this method worked as a charm, it still make its user say something stupid. Like when Wade said 'Protect the big pair of jugs' when ordered to protect the queen from Bialya. Naruto soon found himself nursing his forehead as a fast jab had knocked him down and out of the chair he had been in. The whiskered youth then raised a thumb up as best as he could, "O-OK…no ogling the girl…sir…"

Slade nodded to himself, "Better."

It wasn't Naruto's fault to like exotic girls. He always liked them different and eccentric for some reason. That and both Jiraiya and Wade had sadly rubbed a part of him that couldn't be washed no matter how much Slade tried. It was also the part that made him a doofus, for the lack of a better word. However, the doofus part served to hide what the kid was truly capable of. So, Slade said to himself, sacrificing seriousness for efficiency was good when the kid was capable of getting off his nice guy act and fight like a demon.

Still, his brain cells urged him to find a way to avoid migraines out of Wade's and now Naruto's antics. More like they begged for mercy.

XXXXXX

Gotham City was, surprisingly, not as hot as Naruto thought it'd be when he first arrived. He had flown in a normal airline, and despite his costume he didn't call much the attention. His weapons, that is to say his wakizashi, kunais, shurikens and a few explosives, were safely transported in his bag thanks to Slade and his contacts. The flight wasn't bad, the movies were good and the food was decent, however the blond still found himself airsick whenever he was in a flying machine. Boats he could handle, cars got him a bit of time, but airplanes… he was thankful for barf bags.

Once arriving and getting out of the airport he stretched his limbs, cracking some joints as he grabbed his suitcase and walked to where he was supposed to meet his client. This wasn't so different to being a ninja, he just had to be more formal and respectful since the people running these places were some super-important… guys… Damn it, why was it so easy to take a snore when Slade taught him about politics?

The blond sighed, took out a paper from his suitcase and read its info:

Client – Pamela Isley.

Meeting place – Gotham City's Art Museum.

Mission – Protect the redhead cutie-pie and every single guest at the charity event, and get chimichangas.

Ok… it seemed that asking Wade to summarize anything would have to be taken from the desperate idea files and put in the never-use-it idea files. Well, he might as well go meet the cutie-pie.

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap! This is the prologue chapter.**

**Now, as you've noted, Naruto's already joined Slade, but do expect more fights between them in the future. And Wanda, Lady Deadpool – a Deadpool from a different dimension from the Marvel-verse – will appear in future chapters, but she won't be breaking the fourth wall with inner voices like in the first fic, neither will Wade/Deadpool here. However, because the 4****th**** wall breaking is a must for any Deadpool, the jokes will be there, but not as often as the previous fic to avoid migraines. But when needing to explain something, you better believe they'll be there.**

**Also, the plot from here will be similar to the first fic, and then it'll be on the same route. Instead of a bank we have a museum, Naruto meets the Titans at this environmentalist event, and there will still be the Dark Hour show, a DC version of Mad World's Death-Watch.**

**Now, for the harem:**

**Poison Ivy – How couldn't I put one of the most charismatic and badass villainesses of DC in? She's a feminist, has great respect for herself and is very independent, a woman I'd have on top any day.**

**Blackfire – She wanted fun in Teen Titans, even if dangerous. In here, she'll be the same but more considerate and caring for a psycho sister. That and there's something about her free spirit that just…**

**Supergirl – Why? Just why not? I can't help but be completely fan-boyish when she's in my sights, and she has a personality, suck it Supes.**

**X-23 – There's no way I can let this lady out of my heart. She's badass, she is strong and she can kick my ass while looking so… so… I'm gonna let out a dreamy sigh here.**

**Squirrel Girl – Yes! I admit it! I love this chick! I don't know why, I just do, ok?! She has a great personality, she's always optimistic, and hey, she's changed greatly from her very ugly first design to a very cute and adorable girl in recent comics. She's the Makoto Nanaya of Marvel, though I might base Squirrel Girl's looks more on Makoto's for this fic.**

**Lady Deadpool/Wanda Wilson - Say what you will, when I first saw a female Deadpool in the comics I thought of Marvel making their own Harley Quin, and dear god did it make me happy! When I first saw her in that comic where Deadpool traveled dimensions with his zombie head... instantly favorited the girl.**

**That's it, no more girls. Don't judge me I just am different and am entitled to my own opinions of who my favorite comic girls are, and those are my top six, btw. Not because of looks, though those help, but because of their kickass personality and their drives to fight making me fall head over heels for them.**

**Swo****rdslinger out!**


	2. Chapter 2

I OWN NOTHING, because the world would probably lock me up in an I-love-me jacket if I did.

**XXXXXX**

Making new enemies

Pamela Isley was a cute, attractive girl, as anyone would notice from looking at her even with her green skin. However, that said green skin made morons call her a freak. Some tried to use that to their advantage and score a date with her despite her appearance and dump her. That's how she discovered she had strange powers, one was a pheromone she could simply blow from her bare palms, as if they were a flower, and leave someone to her complete control. This trick worked wonders when she was once assaulted by common thieves and the sudden movements left some of those pheromones in their faces, making them return the money and hand themselves over at the police station.

The second power was from a smarter bastard that tried to get in her pants. She, alone due to her appearance, fell for his cheap tactics until she kissed him. The guy was soon sent to the hospital, coughing from the poison. When she went to visit, the bastard had shouted how angry he was that his plan to get laid failed because of her poisonous kiss. After that, her popularity had gone from low to the very bottom, save for a few true friends.

Her third power was discovered when she was in one of Gotham's botanic gardens. Some punks who were friends with the asshole who received her poisonous kiss had vandalized the place and all the plants were either burned or broken to pieces. The instant she touched one of her favorite bed of flowers they came back to life. Chlorokinesis; that was the name of the ability she possessed to control wood, vines, plants, fruits and flowers. She was basically Mother Nature. Some people from environmentalists groups asked for her support, and since her birth she had loved plants, and now loved them more than most human beings, she gave it a go. And now here she was:

"He's late." She sighed in the roof of the Gotham's Art Museum. Despite the museum having art it also had its historic halls and even some rooms designated to rare plants that she, after her powers were discovered, had worked on with a very kind payment.

But here she was, on the roof, which was also the cafeteria, drinking an organic grape juice in one of the empty tables atop the large building. There was an umbrella protecting her from Gotham's summer sun, but even without clouds the whole city was still a bit chilly. But her idea of wearing a fedora and a trench-coat like in the movies to hide her ID, her body needed air due to her half plant side, and her only coat had started to boil her, so she had to return to her apartment and leave it there after five minutes of walking with it.

So, suffice to say, she was irritable.

But, had she turned her head a few moments ago she'd have found her new employee - paid kindly by the city and the environmentalist groups she worked with for this new project of a clean Gotham - was also waiting for something: his fifteenth hamburger.

"Man, I worked quite an appetite on the flight here." Naruto said as he walked behind Pamela, carrying a tray filled to the brim with food enough to feed a family of ten. She wondered how the table, made of steel as it was, handled all that weight. That's when he popped his head over the tray with a large smile, "Ah, you're Pamela Is…Is… You're Pam, right?"

"Say my name right, at least." She huffed. She looked him over: black military clothes, no tags, an orange muscle shirt and a military cap with an old metal plate. "So you're the soldier Gotham hired? Naruto, right?" she asked curiously. He seemed to just be a year older than her.

He nodded as he, to Pam's disbelief, had already finished a double-meat cheeseburger before she could blink, "Been training hard with the team for some time, but this is my first mission."

Her disbelief turned into shock, "Y-You're a rookie? But I was told, by Slade Wilson himself, that they'd give me someone experienced."

"I have experience fighting." Naruto replied between his third and fourth hamburgers, "I'm, as Slade tends to call it, a child soldier."

"Wait, but a child soldier is someone who's fought in wars… Didn't you say this was your first mission?" asked the confused Pam.

"Working with the team, yes." He said as he finally went to attack the fries.

Then she put two and two together, "So, how much have you been fighting?"

"Since I was about fourteen years old. But I've been trained since I was six for any war…" he said, still sounding somehow carefree and even cheerful while pushing everything down with a soda inside what could very well be described as a bucket with a straw.

She felt afraid to ask, but, "Hey, how are you going to pay for all that?"

He smirked, "I'm putting it on Slade's account. Since he's not here I decided to have some revenge for every time he made me starve and live out of any frog I could find and eat every time he trained me." He said with a very large, happy smile.

Back in Alaska, Slade Wilson felt a sensation he thought long lost: fear. Meanwhile, Pam decided to let out a mental sigh of relief. Then it was back to making sure this guy's curriculum was worth the city's money, "So, how are you? In fighting, I mean. Besides, I also want to ask about your ability to be a bodyguard."

She then noticed something awe-inspiring, his tray was empty. The families, students and all sorts of visitors in the museum as well as the staff were gaping at how fast this one guy had devoured so much food. He clasped his hands above his head, as if saying a prayer to thank some deity for the food. But what Pam saw in his hands made her heart skip a beat: an arrow.

As Naruto ate he could sense that sense of killing intent emanating from one of the nearby buildings behind his back. He had heard the arrow coming his way, and thankfully right after he finished his meal, to move his hands up and clap, catching the arrow before it sunk in Pamela's heart.

The blond snapped the arrow in half with his knee, looking at where it may have come from, as the sniper – or archer in this case – had yet to leave the place. Now, one would wonder what would Naruto do in a museum without a weapon, because you clearly can't have anything sharp inside one. Problem was easily solved by grabbing his tray in both hands as a shield, an arrow now directed at him stopping inches from his heart and now nailed on the aluminum tray. By now the guests had made themselves scarce while the blond kept on using the tray to stop arrows coming his and Pam's way, also standing between the archer and the redhead. Once both walked to the nearest entrance to the museum and she entered first, the blond didn't come in after her. He threw the tray, with seven arrows in it, and ran at where he sensed the attacker.

Pam watched as her new bodyguard reached the rails of the roof, jumped, put a foot in the rails and impulse himself in the air. Everyone who saw the blond youth jump about two stories up in the air to the building where the archer was simply gaped, archer included.

The instant Naruto landed on the roof of the office building he was forced to parry a red bow with his right arm, using the left for support. Said bow was designed to be held as a sword for close quarter combats, and Naruto found out that despite it being blunt the one wielding it was decently strong. With his left arm adding resistance to the blow it was easier for Naruto to push the offender back and get into a loose battle stance: legs spread, left fist down and in front of his waist, right arm up and beside his head (Kazuma Kiryu's battle stance).

The archer was a young man about a year older than the blond. The guy was a redhead with short hair, had on a domino mask, those that look like a raccoon's, and wore a red, fitting outfit: boots, pants and even a vest were all red. On his back was a yellow sling-pack for his ammo, several arrows and some of which smelled like gunpowder to the kitsune.

The red archer smirked at Naruto, "Shouldn't you be taking care of your friend?" he asked; waiting for the idea to sink that Pam wouldn't be alone.

However, the idea sunk but not as bad as the redhead thought, "Who said I'd leave someone that cute alone?"

XXXXXX

The museum's gates exploded as people ran out. Pamela was right in the middle of the crowd as she stumbled between them down the stairs. Once on the bottom she attempted to move somewhere safe, anywhere but here. That's when she bumped into a large figure. It was a guy buffer than Naruto, and about the same age, with a square and stoic face wearing a black tank top, cargo pants and combat boots; he had short black hair and blue eyes that glared at the environmentalist in barely held cold hatred. There was also a red emblem on the guy's chest; it was a S inside a diamond shaped outline.

That was all her mind registered before he grabbed her by the throat, lifting her up to his eye level as she struggled to get free, but it felt like fighting against a press with her being trapped in it and with her throat about to become a squishy thing from the force in the guy's grip. But as her breath started to fade and her eyes rolled back she saw something black land on the guy's face. It was a bag, Naruto's bag.

The black haired boy took the bag off his face only to find a pair of black military boots slamming themselves right into his face. He was sent flying backwards, letting go of Pam. As her breath returned she found herself in a pair of lean but muscular arms, Naruto's. He smirked at her, "Yo, sorry it took me a while; I had to find my stuff." He stated, putting her on her feet and helping her up. The angry attacker rose from the ground while Naruto was tying his wakizashi's holster to his right thigh and taking his battle stance.

The raven haired boy growled, "Weren't you fighting Red Arrow?"

"I am." He said as he aimed a finger to the roof where a shocked redhead, now indentified as Red Arrow, got sucker-punched by Naruto(?) for being distracting at finding two blond boys.

The Naruto on the streets rushed in to attack now that the other boy was distracted, but as soon as he swung his fist the raven haired guy caught it in one hand. Naruto winced in pain as this guy had a very strong grip. He then tried to kick him on the side, but his opponent managed to capture his leg under his arm. Before Naruto could do a thing, he was being carried with his back being aimed at the walls of the museum to crush his spine into dust. There was, however, one way to reverse this, his free leg. Just as Naruto was about to hit the wall he moved his left leg behind him; using the wall as a step for his footing he brought his free knee into the guy's head and right into the ear, which caused the balance of the attacker to be lost.

The black haired guy fell to the ground, letting Naruto fall. The blond landed on his back, breaking his fall as best he could with his arms before flipping over his unceremonious landing back to his feet. The black haired boy simply rolled over his back and then face-first to the ground to slowly get up. From this Naruto easily deduced this guy wasn't a fighter, he was a brawler: brawn first, skill last. However, he had good reflexes to stop his sucker-punch.

And the raven haired boy also had an ego, "Ok, forget the target, I just want to kill you now." he said as he glared at Naruto.

The blond adjusted his cap, "Well, time to get to work." He said, getting in a different stance, both fists up and in front of him, weaving his upper body a bit and jumping on his toes. But the black haired boy didn't want to wait and charged at Naruto with a jump, lunging at the blond at speeds the kitsune didn't expect. Naruto yelped in shock before leaning his body back in a way his spine should have cried in pain, and if it did he ignored it as he had forced his head to hit the concrete ground to avoid a charging punch that split the lamp-post behind him in two.

"Ah! Damn it! It hurts!" Naruto grumbled as he rolled on the floor, nursing the lump on his head.

The people around him, rather the crowd around him, sweat-dropped at the kid's ineptitude at such a stupid trick from the Matrix movie. They had gathered to see someone actually fight Superboy, but were rather disappointed in what they were looking at. But what they saw as disappointment, Superboy saw it as anger, '_This is the guy who hit me and Red Arrow?!_' he furiously snapped the remains of the lamp-post from the street and held it up like a club, intent on clobbering the blond to death.

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the nearing piece of metal that would have smashes his head like a ripe melon had he not rolled away, "Whoa! Hey, take it easy!" he said as he sprung back to his feet with a hand on his beloved cap.

"Just die, you stupid waste of space!" Superboy roared while trying to smash Naruto's face in.

However, the blond proved to be more than met the eye, whenever a swing came his way he'd either side-step it or duck under it in a more stylish manner than his first evasion from Superboy's punch. It seemed as if he were reading the black haired youth's moves like an open book. The crowd were now stunned at watching the instant turn of events as Naruto didn't work a sweat, even keeping a hand on his military cap all the time. This, of course, irritated Superboy much more.

"Just stay still!" the boy roared, jumping with the intention to crush Naruto with the lamp-post held in both hands.

Naruto simply stepped forward, shocking everyone when he easily caught one of Superboy's legs in one arm and an arm in the other, carrying the ridiculously strong boy from one side before running at a nearby wall. He used Superboy as a ram-rod, but when hitting the wall with the boy's head, the strong assassin bounced off while the concrete of the wall cracked. Naruto let go of him and saw the buffer young man take the recoil by flying a few yards off the wall.

Naruto now crouched before the black haired boy who laid on the ground with his face eating concrete. The crowd was too shocked to think of anything coherent. Naruto simply took off his cap and shook it as if to take off the dust, "Hey, um… you wanna call it quits?"

Superboy was downright furious at that stupid question and jumped back to action, trying to deliver an uppercut. Naruto leaned his head to the side, holding his cap with one hand, and let the black haired boy stand up without even touching him. Superboy glared harder at the blond, "I'm going to rip your head off!"

Naruto dead-panned, "Pal, you need to chill."

"I'm not your pal!" the angry boy shouted at the top of his lungs as he charged the blond and kicked at him. Naruto crossed his arms in front of his face, using the impact to stand up. However, the force was too much and broke through his block, which Superboy tried to use to keep forward with the attack. However, once on his feet, Naruto spun on his left heel and delivered a solid roundhouse kick to the charging teen's gut, sending him back to the floor… or rather that would have happened had the guy who wanted the whiskered young man dead managed to grab a hold of his leg.

Naruto was swung around like a rag-doll in a tornado. He was let go so he slammed head first into the nearest tree. But before he could maneuver his body to right himself up, something caught him in the air. He looked down to find several roots around his torso, moving on their own before setting him gently on the ground.

Superboy glared at the one controlling the tree, a glaring Pamela who wasn't happy at all by being strangled. Soon more roots shot from the ground to capture Superboy, who reacted by punching and tearing them apart as fast as he could while they kept on coming.

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, the Naruto who had found Red Arrow was busy now that he had found himself in the sights of a second sniper. Right after sucker-punching the first sniper/archer he met today, another instantly attacked him from his blind side. The soldier of fortune dodged under a green arrow this time, before listening to a mocking female voice.

"Is that it, Red? I thought you said you could handle this." She was a slender female archer, fairly muscular and rather curvaceous, wearing a pair of black tight stealth pants, green combat ankle-high boots, and a green coat with a midriff, long sleeves hidden in black fingerless gauntlets and a green mask connected to the coat's collar with a black hood to keep her face hidden in shadows for extra measure. On her back was a sling-pack with arrows, in her hand was her trusty compound bow with a scope.

"Shut up, Artemis!" Red Arrow shouted at the girl before charging at Naruto with his bow held as a sword.

Naruto replied by catching one of Red Arrow's arms by the wrist with one hand, the other in a fist as he had it reeled back. He side-stepped Red Arrow, so he couldn't attack or counter Naruto's own counter. The blond then moved the arm with the fist over the one holding the red archer and in a swift motion delivered a whip-like elbow to the redhead's face. The first archer fell to the ground, holding his face in pain while Naruto managed to take the red bow.

Why did he keep the bow? Because Artemis was smart enough to aim at him while in the middle of the battle. Holding the bow in its melee form like its master did, the whiskered blond swatted aside an arrow that was aimed to his knee of all things. Artemis jumped back, flipping backwards in the air and landing on a large AC machine, the kind that are used for large buildings. She grabbed a second arrow and kept her distance from the blond who was now chasing after her.

She smirked when he was close enough and fired. Naruto, of course, swatted the arrow like the first one, but he did not know that both she and the other archer had customized arrows. After a quick explosion he was sent flying back with smoke around him. He landed on his back against another AC, leaving a decently large dent on it. He growled as he got up to his feet, used the bow he "borrowed" from the redhead archer to lift himself up.

Artemis had hidden herself around the ACs, and Red Arrow had decided to end the fight he started. "I'm going to blow your head clean off your shoulders." He stated, aiming a finger at Naruto.

"I have your only weapon, how do you expect me to feel threatened?" Naruto retorted, only to see in great dread how Red Arrow smirked.

"I am also known as Arsenal, did you know?" the redhead said as he raised his right arm, holding it with the left as if it were a rifle, and it sparked with electricity. The skin disappeared as the holographic image it was to show a metallic arm, which hand moved down from its wrist to show a laser canon (Yeah, the Young Justice cybernetic arm).

And faster than one could say, "Oh my god, you Metal Gear rip-off!" Naruto flipped backwards to avoid a red, hot glowing laser that barely missed his chin. However, the blond held said chin in pain as the heat of the laser was hot enough to give him a burn. It wasn't serious, but it stung like a bitch. The blond was currently holding his mouth and chin with his unarmed hand to try to lessen the pain and, unintentionally, shut himself up from saying a very loud blasphemy that would have made unborn babies cry.

Soon he felt Artemis nearby while Red Arrow, Arsenal… whatever his name was, readied another blast. Naruto grit his teeth to the point they almost squeaked as he jumped above the second blast and used the "borrowed" bow to deflect another arrow, this time hitting it on the rear rather than near the tip or else it'd blow up… Damn, that sounded dirty. However, bad innuendoes aside, the arrow did blow up behind him when it hit the ground, and all while he still held his aching chin.

He looked as the redhead prepared another laser blast, so thinking it was time to return the bow, he threw his only melee weapon back to its owner, right inside the canon. Arsenal screamed as his right arm sparked from the obstructed barrel before it blew up, taking his hand along it.

Artemis mentally cursed as she saw her partner lose his cybernetic arm. However, the fox-like blond was right in her sights and still airborne. She fired, watched as the arrow moved right into his back, where the heart was, only to gasp when he disappeared as a cloud of smoke. The only thing her arrow had hit was a… a log? How the hell did he get a log in the middle of the city?! Did he carry it with him?! Wait, what was that presence behind her?

Before she knew it, someone had slapped both sides of her head, right into her ears, with so much force she instantly fell down face-first.

Naruto sighed, touched his chin and winced. Good thing he was a clone, or else this burn would have annoyed the real deal for maybe a few days. The clone looked down where his real self was fighting; he then looked at Artemis and Red Arrow. There was something Wade had once told him: duct tape…. Yeah, that was it, only "duct tape." And from that day forward, somehow, Naruto always had duct tape with him. Why? He couldn't reason against Wade's logic for some strange, unexplainable reason. It just simply worked in a bizarre way around the universe's logic as if to defy existence. He honestly didn't want to know, Wade's mind, and therefore Wanda's mind, was a VERY, very terrifying place.

XXXXXX

Superboy couldn't move, flinch or even twitch in the most minimal way as he was trapped in roots and more roots like a cocoon. Suffice to say, when Mother Nature wanted her plants to be strong she got her wish. And Naruto, rather than let an opportunity to go slipping by, was busying himself drawing doodles – which were drawings of Chibi Naruto's - on Superboy's face, MUCH to the annoyance of the guy who tried to kill Pam.

"You wanna give up and tell me who sent you to kill Pam? Because this marker can't be deleted by either alcohol or even acid. I know, someone used it on me and I had a doodle of his mask all over my face." Curses and hail to you, Wade, for giving so many inspiring jokes that made people want to rip you in half.

Meanwhile, the crowd was both in awe and terror at seeing two people take on someone like Superboy. But soon, someone tugged at Naruto's pants, it was a small five year old kid smiling widely, "That was cool!" the kid said. "You went all like a ninja!"

Naruto couldn't help but grin a lot and stood up, "That's right!" he then took a pose, holding his cap's brim in one hand while his other aimed a finger up, "I am the Maelstrom of the Country of Flames! The hero who holds the strength of a hurricane! The man who can hold whirlpools in his hands!" he then flashed a grin at the crowd, hooking a thumb to his chest, "I am Uzumaki Naruto! The ninja with the power of a demon and the determination of a beast!"

Due to the very Kamina-like boast, children were either ecstatic or exploding in cheers, parents sweat-dropped, and Pam face-palmed while Superboy wanted nothing more than to bang his head against a wall until falling unconscious.

Pam could only mutter one thing that truly bothered her: "This is the guy who's supposed to protect me?"

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, in a dark, empty and oversized cave, several shadows looked upon the images of their teammates fail at the hands of such a doofus like this Naruto. Some were in disbelief, some tried to remain stoic despite their shock, and others wanted nothing more but to test their abilities against the blond ninja idiot. Behind them a large set of monitors a larger shadow stared at the images with interest on this newcomer.

A fast voice rang through the cave, "Man! Did they really lose to such a moron?!"

The larger shadow growled, "I wouldn't call him that. He has an interesting power in him…"

"What are you talking about, Master?" a shadow asked with the most respect he could muster, "He beat them just by luck and the help of our target. We simply need to pass by him and kill her, and then kill him for standing in our way."

A feminine giggled, "Oh please, my _friend_. Wouldn't you like to test your might against such an opponent in a more evened battle? He seems most… amusing…"

An animalistic shadow creeped from behind a much larger one, jumping into its right shoulder, "Yeah, Star? We're not some sadomasochistic psychos like you, ya know?"

A shadow darker than the others, certainly feminine by its figure but hidden in a hood, spoke in a monotone, "It wouldn't even be called a fight against such an idiot. The others lost because they underestimated him when they should have crushed him from the start."

A tall, buff shadow spoke indifferently, "A worthy opponent is what we have here, nonetheless. I wonder what my king would think if I were to surpass such a strong air-breather."

A new female shadow spoke with disdain, "It doesn't matter. He's still a human. He will be like all of them: greed incarnate. It is our duty to either eliminate him or have him under our will."

The larger shadow spoke next, "Indeed, Megan. However, I want this kid alive. I want to see, can he handle true darkness, or will he be just another snack for my games."

The submissive shadow nodded, "Agreed, it will be entertaining to see him fall. However, Master, you have to meet with that Isley bitch. Or else your public image may be damaged if you don't act kind and caring after this."

"Hmm… I guess you have a point… Fine, I'll indulge myself, and then see if this Naruto holds any worth at all."

Needless to say, the other shadows waited for his return, because one way or another, they were sure a fight would come soon, and that's what they had longed for in quite some time.

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap! Sorry if it was short, but I wanted to put this part when my brain didn't stop yanking my nerves about it. Nah, honestly, I just felt the need to write this and start the fic on a better footing. Don't worry, there'll be the museum night fight, extended and with some Jackie Chan styled humoristic fights. Why? When people say "You break it, you pay it" it normally means bad things for Naruto.**

**And now, since a LOT of people begged me to increase the harem, this are the ONLY four gals I will add: Black Canary, Miss Martian, Starfire and Raven. NO more. That'd be ten girls, and already on double digits. If I put one more girl I will probably blow it. Here is what I plan for each girl in the harem (WARNING; some of these will be sappy to explain why I see this working):**

**Poison Ivy – Someone who has seen the cruel and greedy side of humanity finding a carefree idiot who just wants to enjoy life.**

**Blackfire – A duty-bound girl who wants to have fun and keep her sister safe find someone who always fights for what he thinks is right.**

**Lady Deadpool – A psychotic childhood friend who lost her sanity and innocence long ago, finding someone who can understand her in different levels.**

**Supergirl – A hate filled lass who finds a person with more reasons than her to hate everything and everyone helping others.**

**X-23 – A blade to take lives finding a shield who protects all.**

**Squirrel Girl – A flirty thief with a nag for jewels, especially sapphires if they shine line a certain pair of eyes she loves to tease.**

**Black Canary – A cold calculative killing machine, being more of a ninja than anyone else, Naruto's mission is to save her.**

**Miss Martian – Humans are selfish and beyond salvation… right? They only serve to be ruled over or eliminated… So why is he so different?**

**Starfire – There's such a strange, unexplainable fun when both are bloody. So exhilarating and yet so… so…**

**Raven – How can he understand her? How can they be so similar and yet so different? Why is he willing to save others, even her?**

**And that is IT! No more girls, and if any of you says anything about adding anyone else, I will block you. Those are my top ten, and even if I love Harley Quinn… she's my top thirteen. Sorry, but I'm a human being and I have the right to have a different choice than yours.**

**Swordslinger out!**


	3. Chapter 3

I OWN NOTHING, so do yourselves a favor and read this important note:

Harem: Poison Ivy, Blackfire, Supergirl, Lady Deadpool, X-23, Squirrel Girl, Black Canary, Miss Martian, Starfire and Raven. NO more, as said in the last chapter.

**XXXXXX**

You are going to be sorry

Rather than finding himself escorting Pamela to her place and making sure she stayed safe, something was off here. Fortunately, the angriest of the trio of assassins had been put a special collar that sealed his powers, so he wouldn't escape. Perhaps what was off was the fact the police already showed up, maybe that they were shocked beyond belief at seeing some of the most terrifying criminals in the city taken down by a simple soldier of fortune, or the fact he had been forced to sit in one of the patrols.

"Officers!" some long dark haired woman with blue eyes and an office suit – a white skirt as wide as toilet paper, a purple coat and black high heel shoes – spoke to the officers, aiming a finger at Naruto, "That man over there is just as responsible of the disaster here as those kids you're taking as prisoners."

"Wait, what?!" was Naruto's most eloquent way to react as his proud, smirking face turned to absolutely horrified.

Pamela grew furious, from relatively calmer from being shocked and baffled from Naruto's antics to really pissed off in about one instant, and spoke up, "Bullshit." She stood next to the police, "Officer, that guy is my bodyguard, and he saved me from those morons trying to KILL me of all things."

The woman looked away indifferently, "Oh please, sweetie, if that guy is truly a bodyguard he should have taken you away, not fight like a hooligan against some kids. Besides, you didn't deny that most of the damages here were because of him. Had he just run with you, these streets wouldn't have received any damage, and he did break that wall over there." She aimed a finger to the cracked concrete that Superboy's head had been introduced to. Then, as simple as that, she puffed her chest to show off some of her cleavage to get the male officers' attention, "Besides, how do you expect innocent ladies like me to feel secure when he is armed."

True, Naruto had his wakizashi, but it was because he had recently tied it up. But before he or Pam could retort, an officer that couldn't be swayed by breasts stood up. Donna Diego, a beautiful twenty seven year old cop dressed in the police's standard uniform of gray pants, blue rain coat, white buttoned shirt, black tie and black shoes. She moved a bang of her long, wavy red hair behind her left ear and looked as polite as she could to the other woman, "How about you button your shirt and let us deal with this? We are the police, you're a civilian and you're making a lot of accusations without any proof. So unless you can show us that the kid behind us is truly guilty of what you've said, back off. Or do you want to be with those 'kids' in a patrol to face several charges for obstructing our job?" she said with a tone that made it clear there was no room for arguments.

Lois Lane, reporter extraordinaire, huffed and stomped away, "Fine, be that way. When that blond gives trouble because of his recklessness, I wonder what the civilians will say of you."

Donna felt the urge to reach for her revolver, but a presence behind her made her turn to the blond kitsune, "Hey, thanks, lady."

Donna smiled at him and Pam, "Don't worry, you two. I heard from the radio about some blond kid beating the Titans, at first I didn't believe it, and then I made a bet… I owe my captain five bucks."

"Oh, sorry…" Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head.

A nearby officer smirked, "Hey, don't be, those are five bucks we're all willing to pay in order to see these guys in jail." He said as he aimed a finger at the handcuffed assassins, all three of them in different vans and locked tighter than Hannibal Lecter.

Donna nodded, "That and I hate that attention-hag of Lois Lane, she pretty much says 'A thousand have died in a terrible accident' and 'Happy New Year' with the same voice and tone. Also, I'm one of the few who are up for a clean Gotham." She said as she looked at Pam with a small smile. "If there's anything we could do for you-"

"Actually." Naruto interrupted her with a hand raised, as if to politely ask for her permission to speak like a kid in school, "I'd like to go with them and make a few questions, if you two don't mind." He said, looking at the redhead he was hired to protect and the redhead who had saved him a migraine.

Pam nodded a bit hesitantly, "If it means you can have some ideas about who sent them and stop them from killing me, then yes."

Donna sighed, "Well, the city paid because we feared the Titans could have shown up to stop the cleaning project. I guess I could let you slide in, but… It may take some time to persuade my boss, so try to keep it a secret." She looked at the other officers, who nodded at her, "Well, the Gotham Police Department is backing you up on this; just don't say a word, you two."

The duo made a motion as if they zipped their mouths; Donna sighed inwardly and, after carefully planning how they'd pull it off, she had Pam ride with her in her patrol while Naruto sat inside Superboy's van. To make sure he doesn't escape, was what the blond said despite the warnings and objections against being in the same place as someone who wanted him deader than Elvis. Pam would be taken to Donna's small office, be asked some questions about the incident as well as other civilians, etc., etc., and Naruto would slip by to get some time alone with the assassins and make his own questions.

A quick cloud of smoke later and a perfect disguise as an officer of Gotham's police force was all Naruto needed to enter and escort Superboy to a cell inside the department while the collar on his neck kept his powers at bay. However, Naruto truly felt something was off when he neared the large building of law enforcing, a presence, if you will, that made him feel its pure… nothing. The presence had nothing, wanted nothing and showed little to no life in it. But since he could sense every presence in the departure as alive as a fresh lettuce, this new one made him feel unnerved.

XXXXXX

Pam walked into the offices of the large department, many people turned to look at her due to her skin. She hated that, at least her recently contracted bodyguard didn't stare like she was some circus freak. Then again, he did get a picture to recognize her, so her hopes were a bit low. Still, the fact he acted casual around her was a good note for him in Pamela Isley's book.

But Pam's train of thought was cut short the instant she met her arch-nemesis, the pain in her neck, the one guy she wanted to see dying as she was sure his dried up little heart was aching to keep him alive in the searing waves of hatred broadcasted at him from all over the city, the nation and the world: Bruce Wayne. He was a tall, buff, thirty two year old businessman with a big jaw and short black hair that enjoyed being in a very elegant and ridiculously expensive suit: black coat, pants, a blue buttoned shirt and two thousand dollar shoes.

That innocent, cheeky dog façade of his really pissed her off. "Ah, Miss Isley. I heard the news, so terribly sorry." he said with a smile falser than Obama being against health care. Now she understood what Donna meant when she said Lois said 'A thousand died in a terrible accident' and 'Happy New Year' with the same voice. To act kinder he extended a hand to her, "The moment I knew of the attack I drove all the way to where you were, but I was fortunately told you would arrive here. Glad I made it in time."

Yeah, even an amateur could try to put up a better act. He sounded like Kent Brockman, speaking in a smarmy monotone that didn't seem to change at all. Pam replied by doing the smart thing: "Piss off."

"Oh, such harsh words coming form such a delicate lady. That hurts." Wayne said, not even changing facial expressions.

"Don't you think I'm some idiot who doesn't know how you think, Wayne!" Pam started, pointing a finger at the smug businessman, "If my project for a clean Gotham works, you wouldn't have your dumpsters to earn some easy cash."

Wayne waved dismissively at her, "But Miss Isley, you and I know the one true perpetrator must be the one who rules those places. And, sadly, I can't say it's me." He then took a melodramatic pose by extending his arms to his sides, still smiling, "Do you have any idea how many good officers have died in those places because of the one who uses them for his games? I have tried to take control of the place by my own means, but, sadly, no matter who I hire they end up as food for that madman's sadistic games." He then leaned forward with that smug smirk still plastered all over his face, "If I were you, I wouldn't make baseless accusations. The Titans obviously wanted to participate in their little games... Have a nice day."

And with that, he was off. Donna summed it up in just one word: "Asshole."

Pam groaned, "You think that's bad? I have to see him several times to work on how to take all the garbage he's piled in Gotham out of the city. All while he proclaims to be some saint doing it for the best and not for his pockets."

Donna nodded, "And good thing you're not legal." She said as she walked Pam to her desk, "Bastard's a womanizer of the worst kind. And it's worse when he brings in his buddy Anthony Stark, who is worse… I once went to inspect on a suspicious event of theirs…" she smirked and pulled out a tazer, "You wouldn't believe how glad I am the chief gave us these babies."

Pam smiled, "Officer, this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

However, Bruce Wayne found a friendship he would never think as beautiful just as he approached his black Lamborghini. Lois Lane was certainly NOT happy at seeing him, and less when he still kept his cheeky smile, "Lois, it's been a while."

"You promised me a juicy event for this afternoon." She huffed, walking beside him and speaking in whispers so nobody heard them.

"And it will happen. You just need to be patient and wait near this departure for a while." He stated, looking at where the cells should be, "That kid, that mercenary boy… He really is something… I can't wait to break his mind to make him a good disciple for my games."

The reporter turned to glare at the smiling man, "Well, that brat and the green freak humiliated Lois Lane, and that can't stand."

He waved dismissively, still smiling, "Don't worry. The Batman may do his thing in the night, but the Titans are up all day long for things like this." He said, entering his car, which was pimped up to levels that said this guy loved to spoil himself, and smirked at Lois, "Just wait, and hey, maybe you'll see him fall. It could help you ego."

And with that he drove off.

XXXXXX

Naruto was currently in the cells of the police departure taking the Will Smith approach of negotiation in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but with some modifications. He was better at annoying people by using songs from cartoons:

"Now, the Willy Wonka song! Brought to you by Uzumaki Naruto!" the blond said, still in his policeman disguise. So far he had made them listen to seventeen songs. The assassins, with the archers unmasked, weren't sure whether to go nuts at the nostalgia train or be downright disturbed at how many voices he could make. So far, it really sounded like those infernal puppets were singing with their chipmunk voices, and to make it weirder he wasn't missing a beat, it was like hearing the song directly from the movie, minus the music.

But everyone had a limit, "Ah, shut up!" Superboy shouted as he tried to pry the collar off so he could escape and beat Naruto's face in, not necessarily in that order. He only got a very potent shock that sent him to the ground, but to his misfortune it didn't knock him out. Artemis was currently banging her head against a wall, and Red Arrow had put his own head inside the toilet of his cell in a desperate attempt to mute the songs.

The nearby guards, wearing those headphones to avoid going deaf in the shooting gallery, looked with some pity at the assassins, "Should we stop him? It's only a matter of time before he uses the Ducktales theme song or something catchier."

"Nah, we stop him if he uses the songs from Dora the Explorer." Replied the other guard.

Naruto inched closer to Superboy after he finished the last song, "Come on, guys, just tell me who is your boss, contractor, client, or whatever and I won't sing 'It's a small world,' I promise."

"You're a monster!" Artemis shouted with her forehead slightly red.

Naruto simply smiled, "Thanks, I learned this trick from the best." Thanks, Wade, for your resourcefulness… when not using it by tying Naruto to a table to tell you where the last chimichanga is when you have obviously eaten it. Some mental scarring just could never leave. However, Naruto wasn't cruel, and he was starting to feel his throat drying up. So instead he sat cross-legged before the black haired boy and took off his cap, in which he had a set of cards with 'UNO' on them. He had this in case he was bored and could spare himself a clone. Thanks again, Wade.

"What're you gonna do now, torture us by taking all our money on a kids game." Superboy growled.

Naruto shrugged, "Either that or just get to know you guys better." He said, opening the small box and starting to play some tricks to mix the cards. "Anyone wants a fair game?" His answer was to be flipped the bird by Artemis before she threw herself to her bed while Red Arrow still had his head in the toilet. The archer was returning his last meal due to the amount of time he spent with his head in the big round one.

Surprisingly, Superboy sat cross-legged before the blond now in a calmer mood, examining him with some gaze that could be best described as an ever-present glare in a face like his. Or maybe it was the personality. Naruto didn't care, he simply tossed the insanely strong boy a card and the assassin caught it in a split second. "So, are you going to bet anything? Or do you hope to achieve something by doing this?" Superboy calmly asked as he and Naruto had the cards they needed for a friendly game.

Naruto just shrugged, "You weren't telling me anything when I annoyed you, so I thought on trying to get to know you rather than your client." The blond said as he started by taking two cards until he finally could get rid of one. "So, do you want to talk about anything?"

Superboy scowled a bit harder than usual, but still remaining somewhat calm, "You know I won't say a thing about who is calling the shots." He said, making Naruto lose a turn before getting rid of another card.

"Yeah, so I want to know why would you want to kill Pamela." The blond asked as calmly as he could, before smirking and forcing his opponent to take four cards.

"It's my job, do you think I have an option?" with an edge on his voice as he used the wild card. "Blue."

"Everyone has a choice, it's as easy as saying yes or no." Naruto said, as he blocked Superboy's next move and made him take two more cards.

"Yeah, try telling that to the ones who made me to be a weapon." The angry guy said, before smirking when he forced Naruto to take four cards and was now able to once again change the color, "Red."

"Well, I am a soldier of fortune, can't argue with upbringing when I've seen several guys thinking they didn't have a choice. You may say you can't choose, that everything was against you, but my profession was chosen by me when I could have quit any time I wanted." Naruto then sighed, "Man, you're getting the good cards…" he said, and seeing as he didn't have any red cards, he and the prisoner kept on waiting for a bit, then Naruto came with something to ask when he finally was able to get rid of a card, "Hey, you never told me your name."

Superboy looked perplexed. "I don't have one. I'm just the Superboy." He blinked in slight stunned awe, before noting he didn't have any six.

"Then get it by yourself." Naruto said as he waited for Superboy to draw a card, only to see the boy of steel stop midway, frozen. He looked at the blond, who shrugged, "It took me quite a while to get people to stop calling me 'Demon Brat' and use 'Naruto Uzumaki' when talking about me… Are you gonna draw?"

"Right." The black haired teen said, finally drawing what he needed. "How did that work out for you?" he asked, a bit forcefully. He growled, looking away, "Argh, forget I ask-"

"It was worth the effort." Naruto replied. "It wasn't easy, but it felt worth it to be seen as a person, rather than as something that shouldn't have been around." The 'something' part called the black haired boy's attention due to the odd feeling of the blond not being seen as a person by that statement. The game continued quietly, as both Naruto and Superboy kept on getting rid of cards without any special one stopping them, until Superboy remembered something:

"Connor…"

"Is that your name? As in, your real name?" the blond asked. Now he was on his final card, "Uno."

"Superboy… that's the name I was given as the real one. But I remember that, before I was… born…, someone called me Connor." The kid said, struggling to say 'born,' which Naruto noted. Then Superboy put in his final card, "Uno."

"Well, it's a good name… After all, I'm named after a ramen ingredient." The blond said, before getting rid of his last card, "I win. Would you like to go for another round?"

And faster than one could say "Holy Fox-Sense" Naruto jumped up in the air, flipping back and barely avoiding a green beam of energy that came from behind the cells. But like last time he dodged a blast of energy, his chin got scratched by it. Unlike last time, this energy blast wasn't as hot, but it left enough pain on Naruto for him to hold his chin and curse loudly through muffled screams now that he had his hand over his mouth and pained chin. The reason why his chin suffered was because he didn't want to lose his set of Uno cards.

XXXXXX

Inside the station, everything was chaos. Outside, Lois Lane had called over her filming crew as she was now live. People screamed their heads off, being free targets for the mercs that had arrived to save their assassin friends and break them out. Lois was safe due to her ties, as well as her crew even if the cameraman was about to soil his pants.

"This is Lois Lane reporting live from Gotham City's Police Department where apparently three members of the Titans have been captured and locked in. Unfortunately, just as I was about to get an interview with the police, the rest of their team busted in to take them out. In this reporter's opinion, the city's finest truly aren't worthy of their salary if they can't keep three kids inside a cell- What the?!"

The bars of the cell Superboy had been in flew out of the hole in the wall that he used to escape. The steel bars had been sliced clean off, and Naruto, back to his normal outfit, jumped out of the hole and landed down after a two story high fall. He stood up, looking for the escapees. But when he found the camera he couldn't help but smile and wave, "Hi Wilson's." he said in case the family of mercenaries ever watched the show.

But as soon as he distracted himself, a large stampeding mass of steel tackled him with a metallic shoulder, sending Naruto back inside the police station through several crushed walls. The camera moved to focus on the one who had attacked Naruto. It was an Afro-American man in his late teens with long braids and most of his body being cybernetic. The armor was white and gray, but the organic parts made it obvious he used to be an athlete, probably a pro football player with how he sent the blond flying and landing on Donna's desk.

The officer and Pam were shocked when hearing the sound of walls crumbling, and then the sound repeating but sounding far closer before they lost a heartbeat when the blond mercenary laid on his back over the remains of the policewoman's desk. He grunted while slowly getting up, "I think I was literally hit by a truck… or half a truck."

And that's when things went from bad to worse. A large mass of darkness moved from Naruto's shadow and engulfed the blond before sinking back to the ground, disappearing like water in sand. Naruto screamed his head off as he moved past a dark world with dark crimson floating rocks and an endless night sky. He was being pulled by a large hand formed of the same darkness that had swallowed him, before he was thrown out by said hand like a baseball into another dark portal.

Naruto was currently flying seven stories above the police station's roof, which was about four stories high in itself. So the landing sounded like a very horrible thing to happen right now, until something caught him by his ankle. It was a girl, a redhead at that, who giggled in delight as she swung him around. It was a golden-orange skinned beauty of a girl. She had completely green eyes, stylishly curly, blazing red hair; large breasts in a very shapely figure, and a very revealing outfit with thigh high boots and elbow length gloves, all violet. The suit was a one piece that seemed more like a skimpy swimsuit: it was a back-less leotard with a frontal V-cut in between her breasts, showing off her assets in ways that would made Jiraiya fall to his knees and proclaim that suit as his lord and savior.

However, one fact was easy to note, she was having fun as she started to swing Naruto before spinning around with him as if he were a rag-doll, similar to how Connor had done that same day but now on the skies and with heights that would certainly kill the blond. However, instead of being thrown down the blond was thrown even higher up. He was now screaming at the top of his lungs before gravity took its course of action, and then stopped to get some air back in his lungs and continue yelling as he plummeted to what promised to be certain doom.

Then the doofus slapped his forehead when he was about two stories from hitting a roof about seven blocks away form the police station. He put his hands in his trademark hand-sign and instantly a small army of clones fell down along him, but making sure he landed on them. The result was still painful, his clones groaned and protested against his weight on them while he complained about how uncomfortable his own body fell to land on. Several clouds of smoke later Naruto found out something: it wasn't a good idea to dispel all clans at once, for they still had him about three yards up in the air. When his back hit the ground the blond would have sworn up a storm had Rose's teachings and that sort of motherly voice that made hi crap his pants not taught him to keep his mouth shut.

But it still hurt like a bitch, and once again he was on the ground, nursing his head.

"Ouch… This isn't the way a young man in the middle of his blossoming youth should live…" he was truly in pain; he started to sound like Gai and Lee from the concussion.

"Then how should he live?" asked a voice.

Naruto sighed deeply, "Enjoying life to the max, kicking ass… maybe meeting a nice, kick-ass gal and settle with her… Wait a minute." Naruto rolled over onto his stomach, but found nobody around. He then raised his body, standing like an animal on his hands and feet, and looking behind to the one who spoke to him, while also giving her a look of his ass with his legs spread. "Wait, you aren't the redhead who threw me here." Easily deductible by the fact she had green skin, a darker shade than Pam's.

Her eyes were brown, her lips were peachy and she had freckles that made her look quite cute even if she was glaring at the foxy soldier of fortune. She wore a full-body black suit with two red belts crisscrossed over her rather voluptuous chest, pretty much her whole body save her neck and fingers were covered in the black cloth, and she also had a blue cape.

Miss Martian, also known as Megan as a way to translate her native name, looked with a raised eyebrow at Naruto's ass from the position he was in for what seemed a long time until he rolled over and then stood up, facing her. She let out a mental growl, '_Why do I have to be the one to face this idiot?_'

Naruto took his fighting stance and looked at her curiously, "Are you trying to kill Pam or just getting your friends out of jail?"

Megan snorted, "Please, I wouldn't call them friends. They're just my teammates. And no, your environmentalist friend will have to wait… for you to kill her."

Before Naruto could reply a powerful surge of pain right in the center of his head shook his entire body. He could feel as if something tried to break out, or rather, break in. It didn't take a genius to know that Megan's raised hand signified that she was the one doing this. It wasn't a nice feeling, not at all. He had to hold his head, hoping it could lessen the pain but it didn't. Megan wasn't hurting his head, she was manipulating his mind. He could sense… something… a powerful rage, some deep, burning hatred… all aimed against Pamela. His mind flashed with images of her, dead by his own hands. To stab her, to choke her, to break her neck, to drown her, to-

*Slap!*

Megan was utterly shocked. Here she was, on the ground and holding her cheek from the powerful slap the idiot before gave her. She was at a loss, there he had been a few moments ago, pained and vulnerable, and now here he was, powerful and unaffected by her mental probing. Her surprise soon became anger.

"You humans only serve to satisfy your greed and kill each other, what makes you think you can be so special as to defy your own nature?!" she asked, floating up.

Naruto stood his ground, back in his fighting stance, "Sorry, but I'd rather defy everything that tell me how to live my life." He bared his teeth, showing a pair of fangs that were rather sharp for a 'human' boy. "Besides, who says my nature is to kill others? I'd rather beat senseless anyone who preys on the weak, whether you like it or not."

Megan raised her hand again, probing his mind a bit harder. All she got was a speeding blond charging at her. She did her best to block the punch with both her crisscrossed arms. She flinched upon the pain but took it as an opportunity. With him this close using her maximum psychic power should allow her to truly fuck with his head. She smirked when the fist in her arms stopped putting on pressure as Naruto gritted his teeth from the pain his head was in once again. But it was a very short lived moment of joy the moment Naruto took a step forward, roared out as he used all his might in his fist to not only finish the punch and break through her defense, but send Megan flying at the edge of the building, but she grabbed onto it.

"Hey." Naruto said from the edge, extending his hand to a shocked Megan, "I'm not gonna kill you, but…" he started, but took a moment in the middle of his speech to draw out his wakizashi with the other hand in case she tried anything suspicious, "…I want to know why are you all trying to kill Pam."

Megan extended her hand to his, but it was at that same time that she smirked, "Fool." Naruto was sent flying by an invisible force that seemingly came from her hand. He landed on his back and was forced to stab his short sword's blade on the ground to avoid rolling pass the other edge of the building. Megan floated up, taking some guilty pleasure in watching his angry face, "Why do we want to kill that girl? Is that all you want to know?"

"If you'd be so kind." The blond replied as he took a battle stance, the wakizashi in his right hand in a reversed position while his body was hunched forwards (Solid Snake's battle stance).

Megan smirked, but decided to comply, "It's a little game our boss has. Our… client is rather fond of that game, so he doesn't want its main stage to be taken down due to your client's project."

"The dumps?" Naruto asked, truly perplexed.

Megan shook a finger, "Not only the junkyards, but a very special city. Well, you're new here, so you probably don't know…" She then looked up, deciding that enough was enough, "It also seems your friend is in our hands."

Naruto instantly became furious, "If you dare to harm Pam, I swear I'll-"

"She's still alive, and will remain that way if only you want to play our game." There was a sense of joy when the blond conceded, albeit reluctantly, "Good… I hoped to make you kill her, but since somehow your had is far too thick, it seems it'll be the old fashioned way." She then smirked at him, "Go to the museum this midnight, someone will be waiting for you… The rest of the fun will depend on how much you can last before you break."

And with that being said, she flew up, but before she got far, "You can't kill her, can you?" That stopped her dead in her tracks, as Naruto continued, "You speak how humans are all about killing and stealing, so what does that make you?"

Megan gritted her teeth and flew away as fast as she could. Once she got to a safe distant she looked down on him, watching as he jumped from roof to roof, no doubt to either prepare himself or directly go to her team's newest game. But she was truly mad, "Damn that idiot…" she bit her thumb as she watched him move, "W-What does he know about me? I could sense he killed. So why did he defy his chance to kill that girl? He's no saint, he's just a human idiot… The others should have killed that broad, then it would have been easier to break his mind, but no, oh no… That bastard of Batman has to have his games after his ego is stomped by that bimbo…"

She continued like that for quite a while, but her thoughts more on cursing Naruto, his name, his guts and his frog wallet to Hell. She shook her head, "No, I am not like a human. The others said so… I must either kill them or make them obey the rules. So I'll try harder to make that moron obey my every whim." She then caught herself, blushing furiously, "I-I mean command! Command, not whim!" she grabbed her cape's hood and hid her face under it. "Stupid whisker-faced doofus."

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, Pamela woke up in a dark room. She was tied up to a chair, and all she remembered before passing out was that engulfing darkness that had swallowed Naruto a few moments ago. It seemed that her captors were smart at not leaving any form of plant life around her. But it didn't mean she'd be some damsel in distress. Due to the room being empty she wasted no time. A forceful rocking in the chair made her and her seat fall down, sadly her weight wasn't enough to break the chair, but part of one of its arm rests had cracked a bit.

If people wanted her dead, she at least wanted to give a fight, or at the very least keep herself alive for the sake of Gotham having a greener, cleaner and healthier future. However, a pair of eyes stared at her from the shadows, their owners merging with the darkness. It was interesting, to feel this girl struggling to live despite being seen as a freak... But she wouldn't let Pamela Isley get away without experiencing some nightmares. The boss wanted it like that, all to see the horror strike in the face of his playthings, a horror that the Titans didn't want to see used against them.

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap! Next chapter has the Madworld themed games of the Dark Hour, owned by Batman with his champions the Titans. Btw, I figured it'd be best for the tension to release characters few at a time rather than shove a lot in one chapter and have most of them roaming around with no purpose. Don't worry, the Titans will be presented one by one, have epic boss fights, and then it'll be me back to the arcs I planned from the start but with a MUCH better setting.**

**Also, as you may have noticed, there will be parts where Naruto will get to know better not only friends but enemies to judge better what to do when fighting them, to see if they can be saved or are totally unredeemable. This is a big Vash inspired thing, because… Ok, let's get one thing straight: I fucking love Trigun! There I was, living a normal life with little comfort until a friend introduced me to Trigun and its colorful, energetic and meaningful episodes that brought me slightly perplexed joy in its every step as well as some of the manliest tears to my eyes.**

**Trigun's showed me that anime is worth defending despite the badly written Naruto after its decent plot was ruined by Kishimoto. If I were Batman (canon, not THIS Batman), Trigun would be my murdered parents.**

**And those of you who get my references in this author note get an imaginary cookie.**

**Swordslinger out!**


	4. Chapter 4

I OWN NOTHING, now I'm gonna start playing Metal Gear Rising's sweet-ass soundtrack while writing this chapter.

**XXXXXX**

You're already extinct

A certain mercenary PMC leader was currently in his office enjoying a fine red wine from the nineteenth century. It was expensive as Hell, mind you, but right now it felt so worth every single penny. So Slade Wilson thought to himself to spoil himself a bit. He never asked for much, just that his little brother, niece and disciple could stay calm without giving him a headache every time he tried to relax and have some peace and quiet- What was that annoying buzz? Oh, right, his cell-phone.

"Naruto?" the white haired man asked as he looked at the ID of the caller, a picture of Naruto when he and Wade had one too many chimichangas and laid on the living room. It turned out to be a message, and a simple one at that:

**I need back-up.**

XXXXXX

Naruto stood before the large museum, midnight was nearing and the tension was killing him. And yet, here he was, on a bench across the museum's street, cross-legged and meditating. Recalling his old memories certainly helped to get his nerves away, much more when even when said memories were just about how he put his fist in some arrogant bastard's face. But for now, he wanted to be prepared, so his mental training served to both calm his nerves and recall a complicated but effective technique that took him quite a while to master. It may be common knowledge to most ninjas, but for him it wasn't easy considering his type of chakra was already very rare even with the fox in him.

Ah yes, Kurama… That damn fox became a part of him to save him. Strange, when he was a kid both wanted to eliminate each other, but after facing his own darkness, accepting that Sasuke needed to be stopped and acknowledging what a real friend was in the reluctant alliance he made with the fox… It was kind of melancholic to feel that furry asshole in him. He was a bastard, but he was an ok bastard that the blond would miss.

Soon the sound of a chopper's blades reached his hearing range. Up in the night sky of Gotham a certain Russian, fellow blond man was grinning like a shark. "Kid, a little present from Rose!" Emil shouted at the top of his lungs, throwing a familiarly large suitcase at the youth. Soon the kid's cell-phone rang, Emil's voice calling, "Kick some ass! I'll be patrolling the area, the guys are looking around for where that Pamela cutie is, and if you need help just give me a call and I'll jump with Sasha here." He said, and Naruto could swear the man was patting his Saiga shotgun.

"Thanks, man, I owe you." Naruto said.

Emil grinned, "You bet you owe me and the guys. You went in first class, we had to go with the economic class… but I guess I can forgive you because the air-hostesses were moderately hot."

Naruto hung the phone, letting out a sigh, "Pervert…"

The blond boy put the suitcase on the bench he had been sitting in and opened it to find out really neat stuff… Ok, better elaborate there. The gift was not only from Rose, but also had touches from all the other Wilson's. From Slade it was torso armor, not chainmail, but a black, body fitting, skin-tight armor like in Metal Gear, with both gauntlets being orange while the fingers were black. Naruto simply took off his black jacket and put it over his orange muscle shirt, the material was very resistant but felt incredibly flexible. Other parts were orange knee guards and orange boots made of the same material, he put his pants inside the boots, giving them a ballooning effect. From Wade and Wanda was a belt with several pouches, he tied it up around his waist and put all his kunais, shurikens and explosives in them, Wanda's touch was to leave a note with a lipstick kiss signing it. Last but not least, from Rose he got a sweet katana, its sheath and handle were entirely red, like his wakizashi tied to his right thigh, and while having no guard it made up by being longer than his usual bladed weapon. The katana had a belt to tie it to his back, and the belt was a bit loose so he could sheathe and unsheathe it without dislocating his shoulder.

With determination and his new gear on, Naruto looked at the museum's entrance, atop its large doors a clock signaled it was already midnight. Blonsky and his crew were currently flying over the museum with the elder soldier shouting, "Knock them dead, kid!" while taking pictures with his cell-phone and sending them to a certain girl, "Heh, Wanda's gonna be happy for her late birthday gift." He then threw a line for Naruto to put the suitcase in so Blonsky kept his stuff safe.

Naruto even took off his cap, with the metal plate of his old headband on it. Without the cap he looked like a character from Metal Gear. Inside the cap was the lace of his old headband protector, which he tied up to his forehead. He didn't want the metal plate to be damaged, with the slash it had it could break rather easily if he wasn't careful, but he felt the need to have something on his forehead. It gave him that familiar feeling of doing something he knew, that he was familiar with, a habit he couldn't shake off and that made him feel at ease. Though, in all honesty, he looked a bit more like he'd be a new character for Metal Gear now.

Our mercenary ninja walked up to the entrance, he was on time and the place was empty. The guards, of course, were immediately baffled at seeing a helicopter and a kid in some fancy armor with swords appear before them. However, they knew who the kid was from his fight earlier that day with the Titans, not to mention they had been updated on what had happened and were ordered, by the mayor no less, to let Naruto do what he needed to save Pam. Even if this situation was freaking them out, they felt a bit at ease that someone who could take on super mercs was around.

Every visitor was home and all bystanders were little to none due to the lack of security provided by the night on the city. So, save for Blonsky patrolling the area, the guards who were nervous about an incoming attack, and whoever might show up to greet Naruto, the streets deserted. Once entering the museum it was pretty much the same, save for the fact the guards in it, being warned by Naruto, were looking around for anything suspicious, even if they felt like running away. However, that didn't mean they were the only resources around, the police was also looking for Pamela and the Titans, not to mention some patrols had the place surrounded at safe distances to avoid triggering any alarms for whoever would greet Uzumaki Naruto.

So far, Naruto didn't sense any form of life… Until a large black portal appeared in the large main hall of the museum to drop out someone! The guards, shocked as they were, pulled out tazers and aimed them at the small figure that started to raise from the ground. "Ouch… Stupid Raven, she didn't have to throw me like that after that joke…" complained the small figure of a… a… a fourteen year old boy?

This kid wasn't human, or not entirely, however. He had green skin, pointy elfish ears and short green spiky hair. The small boy wore a white uniform with red covering his front torso, back and acting as if it were shorts, he had purple combat shoes, gray gloves with sharp claw-like ends in each finger and a gray belt (A combo of the Teen Titans uniform with the Young Justice color pattern).

He then looked at Naruto with a smirk, "Hey, you're that guy who I'm supposed to bite his head off, right?" the kid's grin then changed, his teeth morphing into sharp fangs, "I'm a vegetarian, but a little meat sounds good for a midnight snack."

Naruto dead-panned, "Man… you… your jokes suck." He stated bluntly, even the guards had to admit the one-liner was lame.

The green boy shrugged with a cocky smirk, "Heh, serves to break the ice for me. Haters gonna hate and all that jazz." The boy then aimed a finger at Naruto, "And, you and I have a little game."

"Yeah, what is this 'game' you and that other green girl are talking about?" the blond asked, scratching the back of his head.

The younger kid hooked a thumb to himself, "A fair fight, one-on-one, you against each of us until either you break or get to that girl…However…" the fanged smirk returned, "If some cop, or one of those soldiers working in your organization butts in, we'll have to kill your girlfriend."

"She's not my… Well, not that I wouldn't mind if she were…" Naruto started by being defensive and even a bit embarrassed, but when the idea sunk he couldn't say he didn't like it as he thought it well with a hand on his chin… Damn those green, long, shapely legs of Pamela's.

And the green elfish boy agreed, "Dude, I know. Geesh, and you gotta guard her… There's someone I wouldn't mind having to look around all day long." The kid said with a slight blush and a perverted, fanged smirk before shaking his head, "Anyways… Damn, I'm still supposed to fight you and either eat you up or turn you to the boss. And I wanted to ask for some tips…"

Naruto shook his head with a sigh of dread, "Can't say I'm good for advice… My own experience… Let's just say my closest time to a woman was when she cut my cheek and enjoyed the taste of my blood."

The green kid winced at the thought, "That's messed up… Real messed up…"

Before both could continue talking, one of the guards spoke, "Aren't you two going to fight?"

Both kids snapped their fingers, "Oh, right." They said in perfect unison.

Naruto, even when having a brand new katana, got into his basic fighting stance while the green kid simply charged at him. The fanged boy soon jumped up, and to Naruto's utter shock morphed into an enormous green T-Rex. The first thought in Naruto's head was to let out a loud, "Oh fuck me!" before rolling away from the supposedly extinct animal's enormous feet. Several guards, knowing some tazers and flashing lights wouldn't help with a prehistoric reptile, took the wise choice of making themselves scarce.

Once Naruto managed to get up to his own feet he saw as the former boy, now dinosaur, ran at him with his enormous maw opened to either swallow him whole or separate his torso from his legs in one clean bite. A rancid breath that smelled a lot like expired tofu arrived to the blond boy's nostrils as he spread his arms to his sides. The green oversized reptile was soon very shocked when Naruto grabbed its jaws and kept them open while pushing him back.

While the big, green Godzilla wannabe was being kept at bay, the changeling noticed that the blond had struggled to stop him. Due to his (current) bigger size and greater weight the dinosaur was able to push the now smaller blond a few yards back, making the merc skid to a half. If it had lips right now the dinosaur would have smiled as it put a foot forward and pushed the blond back before lifting his skull up and shaking his head wildly with Naruto still grabbing the very sharp set of teeth to keep them away from his face.

Naruto's back got introduced to another very hard object for who knows how many times this day alone. He had crashed, guessing by the times he was hit and the number of times he listened to collapsing debris, through five walls. From the museum's main hall he had been introduced to its Civil War exposition in record time. He was currently laying on a broken bench, his back still killing him and now a green ox stampeding towards him.

Naruto forced himself to stand up, but a sudden crack and a powerful surge of pain made him wince as he knew one of his vertebrae was about to break. However, there was an stampeding creature charging at him… and an unsettling idea came to his mind. As best as he could he turned and let the ox hit him, right where his back had made him feel a hundred years older. A satisfying crack and an actually enjoyable feel of rearranging bones was what sent the blond flying to the ceiling. But with a better back the blond maneuvered his body midair, put both his feet on the ceiling and with a simple jump sent himself back to the ground.

He landed on his own two feet in a ceremonious manner, smirking widely at the changeling, "Man, that certainly helped a lot!" the kitsune said, stretching and enjoying the way his back was feeling. The ox tilted his head to the side, wondering what was up with this crazy doofus. But the changeling decided it was better to have his meal and prove his worth to his team by charging as a triceratops at the blond.

Our smirking hero flipped over the new dinosaur and landed on top of it, had he his cap he could have parodied any cowboy movie. The changeling wasn't happy and trashed around, like a true rodeo animal. Chakra helped a lot to keep the blond glued to his enemy as the green skinned kid morphed into everything he could think off to shake the soldier off and sent him flying into another wall. Mannequins and canons were turned into pieces of trash by the following animals: a bull, a whale, a wolf, a horse, a lion, a tiger, a raptor, a Komodo dragon, a rhinoceros and even an ostrich.

Finally tired, the changeling morphed once again into a T-Rex and, with the blond on his back, jumped up to smash his back into the ceiling. As soon as he saw this Naruto flipped with his back on the green dinosaur's back with his legs and feet aimed up. The changeling expected the sound of his huge form squashing the blond like a squishy bug, but he didn't expect to be instantly sent back to the ground face-first. Whatever this whiskered merc had for breakfast wasn't normal. The landing on his own lower jaw made small tears come to the green boy's eyes as he morphed to his usual form and rubbed his chin.

Naruto landed beside him, now in his fighting stance, "Are you sure you can fight?" the blond asked curiously, "All you do is move around like an animal. You don't even have basic combat moves. If it weren't for your transformations, I'd have easily beaten you."

The changeling's eyes snapped wide open, "What did you say?!" he snapped, punching the ground hard enough to leave some cracks on it.

Mercenaries could be honest, "You can't fight, at all." the whiskered young man said, rubbing the back of his head in a completely uninterested manner, "I've fought animals before… You simply took me by surprise by being able to change into several forms, but I've faced some guys who could do that, too." he then rubbed his chin, "In all seriousness… I should probably stop being shocked when I fight someone who can pull something crazy outta their ass every second." He then looked at the changeling, "But since you can only change into animals… I'm sorry, but this is gonna be easy."

The changeling's eyes were dangerously narrow, his nostrils widened to get hot air out as he hunched, clearly ready to lung and pummel this bastard, "I am not an animal, nor am I a man… I'm a beast!"

The kid charged, showing that both his real nails and gloves were clawed by trying to slice Naruto's neck wide open. The blond parried the blow by using his arm to block the green kid's forearm while mid-swing. He pushed the changeling back, who charged again with his other arm. Naruto parried the blow again, but made a quick step forward to grab the boy by his neck and trip him, forcing him down and slamming the changeling's head to the ground.

The younger of the animalistic fighters gasped in pain before growling, "You bastard…" he said while grabbing Naruto's arm, still holding his neck, and trying to pry it off with little to no success.

Naruto crouched beside the kid while still keeping him pinned down, effortlessly, to the ground with one arm. "What's with you?" the blond asked with some clear concern, "At first you were all chill, cool… and even if your jokes were lame, they were funny lame…"

"Guess what, freak… I'm not human at all." The green kid almost shouted as he tried harder to take Naruto's hand off his neck. "I am Beastboy, the name says already that I am a monster, so get your hands off me, you damn dirty human."

A blank look appeared on Naruto's face, "I'm not human."

"W… What now?" this certainly shocked the green kid... then again, the guy had stopped a T-Rex mid-charge more than once. "Then, what the Hell are you?"

Shrugging was Naruto's best answer, "I don't know. I'm not even sure myself of what I am now. But you are right… I am a freak." The blond shrugged again, "Never really let it bother me now… I mean, I lived it, hated it, and more than once wanted to let it all out… Then, I met someone like you… another freak…" Naruto's face and voice turned somber, "He tried to kill me, he tried to kill everyone around him… But I couldn't just let him do that, it felt wrong… So…" at this, Naruto lifted Beastboy by his throat, and held his belt with his free hand, all while putting his face closer to the green boy's and narrowing his eyes, "I beat him senseless."

Beastboy was thrown high into the air, screaming at the top of his lungs as he spun all the way up and down as if he were trapped in a washing machine, before Naruto reeled a leg back and brought it right up, using the flexibility earned by training along Rose and Wanda to lift his foot above his head. The kick had been more than enough to send Beastboy through the holes he had created in the walls by throwing Naruto, back to the main hall. Naruto jumped right after him, knowing that while he'd have to give an explanation for this damage to the mayor, the curators and Slade, he had to beat this kid no matter the cost.

He had to move and find where the kid had landed, demand some answers about Pam's whereabouts and beat him senseless, but as soon as he stepped into the lobby, he was greeted by a now very familiar T-Rex. And like last time, Naruto managed to catch its lower and upper jaw and keeping them away from biting half his upper body off. The large dinosaur was pushing him back, but it was Naruto's turn to do something. Before Beastboy could react, Naruto gave a step forward and pushed the changeling's mouth up. The change of balance caused the changeling to stagger a bit before his head fell down where Naruto waited for it. The blond closed his arms around the T-Rex's maw, keeping it closed, and struggled against the large reptile.

"One good thing about being a freak…" Naruto growled, before a large smirk was plastered all over his face, "It's that I can do this."

At those words crimson, ethereal energy erupted from Naruto. A dark, foul power emanated from the blond, and even Beastboy felt it through his every cell. Now the green changeling knew one thing…Fear like he had never felt before rushed through him. The blond was supposed to be a joke in the super powered community: just some random merc who was hired to try to protect a dead cause; a new punching bag for every member in Beastboy's team; the guy who would have is hopes shattered. Suddenly he knew they were all wrong. They were all very, very wrong. And he was going to be able to experience why.

Naruto spun on his heels, dragging the large dinosaur with him and, to every nearby observer's shock, lifted him from the ground. He spun around just once before throwing Beastboy right through the front gate of the museum. The changeling finally morphed to his original form after he crashed through the entrance, bounced on the steps and landed on the streets where every police officer who had heard the commotion had hurried up to and aimed their guns at the green, half-conscious kid.

Inside the museum, Naruto took a deep breath as the demonic chakra in him stopped pouring out of his every pore. He then stepped outside, where the green kid was already being cuffed and put on one of those collars that restrain someone's powers, the same kind Connor had on before he was broke out of jail.

The officers turned to look in shocked silence at the blond, before he spoke up, "Can I talk to him for a bit?" he was obviously aiming a finger at Beastboy.

"Tch, whatever…" the kid said with his mood soured by his loss, "If you need to know where your girlfriend's at, you're wasting your time."

"Figured as much." Naruto said with a sigh, already knowing Pam's location wouldn't be given so easily, But he had a few more questions, "Why did you break those three out of jail?" Naruto asked, leaving Beastboy baffled to say the least, "You don't seem to like them, they don't seem to like you, nobody seems to like each other. So, why would you all go through all this trouble?"

Beastboy looked at Naruto for a good five seconds, sizing him up, before answering, "We all wanted to see who was the best. And to do so, you were the perfect punching bag… Guess I ended with the short straw." He then looked at the blond, as if he were struggling to get something out, before speaking as calm as he could, "Listen… about being a freak… What was that all about?"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and gave the kid a simple, warning gaze, "It's all in the past, and that's where it stays." He said to make it clear he'd keep things to himself.

Beastboy growled, "Fine, be that way, you whisker-faced bastard." He then threw his head back, sighing loud and deeply, "But… Damn it, you piss me off so much…" he tried to get his act together, before finally speaking clearly, "The next of us will be waiting for you in Gotham's docks. Since I lost, you should get there, or else the show will be delayed, and the boss loves when it's scheduled as he planned it."

"What show?"

As soon as Naruto asked that, his answer arrived as a large zeppelin flew over him and the cops, several spotlights illuminating the city. The zeppelin also had enormous screens attached to both sides, showing images of Naruto's fight with Beastboy. And it wasn't only on the flying airship. Every TV in Gotham had turned on to life, waking the citizens and showing them the fight in high definition. Then the screens turned to show Naruto and the police of Gotham with whatever camera was around did a close up to the blond kitsune's perplexed face, which wasn't his best at the moment, mind you, because he looked like a pants-on-head moron.

Sadly for Naruto and whatever popularity he could have gotten in this strange event, the image froze like that while a creepy, gruff voice spoke, "Greetings, Gotham. And welcome to another chapter of the Dark Hour show. Our newest guest is Uzumaki Naruto, a member of a very efficient private military corporation, and the one my Titans want to see broken by their hands… Speaking of which… Beastboy, you better enjoy your stay on prison, because your punishment for failure is waiting for you."

Said green kid's eyes widened, "Wait a second! This is my first fault! You can't do this to me! I did my best… I… I haven't made a mistake in so long! Even the others didn't get punished for going to jail today!"

"You know the consequences." The voice replied, speaking from everywhere at once while Beastboy's words were heard all around every TV in Gotham.

Seeing the changeling's head hanging loud, Naruto aimed a finger at where he, correctly, deduced the nearest camera was, "And what will happen when I beat your other Titans?!" he shouted, to make sure everyone heard him.

The voice pondered for a few seconds, "In that minimal chance you call hope… Well, I guess it might be time to bring in a special guest for you to fight. If you make it interesting, I might even fight you."

"Then it's a deal." Naruto said, "I'll beat every single person you send my way, and then it's you and me. Man to coward."

"Coward, you say?" the voice asked with some dark merriment. "Kid, I am the night. I am the darkness. I am someone more powerful than you could ever think off. I am Batman."

"You're a Bat-hole!" Naruto replied by giving the camera the finger, and even if it was a show about beating Naruto to death, the finger was censored.

The voice snorted, speaking in merriment despite feeling irritated at the boy's attitude, "Heh, cocky little brat… Fine, be that way, it'll be more entertaining when you're broken." And with that, the audio was cut, all so the arrogant voice could have the last word.

Naruto turned to Beastboy with a fist up, "What happens if I defeat the son of a bitch?"

The green boy was quite surprised, the happy-go-lucky doofus was gone, and now a very angry blond stood before him. Beastboy replied, nonetheless, "Who knows? If you humiliate him enough, he might get obsessed like he does with everything he doesn't like and leave us alone to plan ways to kill you."

A smile crossed Naruto's face, "Well, I can live with that." He then looked at the changeling dead in the eye, smashing one fist into an opened palm, "So, if I beat him, that asshole won't punish you for losing, right?"

The green kid was shocked, but that changed into making him very annoyed "Why do you even care?! You're our target! We want to kill you and that green girl! You shouldn't put your nose where it doesn't belong."

The kitsune scratched the back of his head, "Well… I don't know…" he then smiled at the changeling, rubbing the tip of his nose as he tried to explain himself, "I simply don't like guys like him… Besides…" Naruto's look hardened a bit, he had a laidback smile, and seemed strangely calm while his eyes had a far-off gaze, "You and another guy in your team remind me of some old friends…"

Beastboy groaned, "But we're not your friends, you idiot!"

Naruto chuckled, showing a large, goofy grin that he was infamous for, "I know."

The green kid grunted in annoyance, "Are you trying to piss me off?"

"Maybe."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"What's with the fucking silence?!" Beastboy exploded, trying to charge at the blond, but sadly for him two police officers pulled him back, "You stupid, whisker-faced retard! Once I get outta here I'll show you how I truly fight! I won't even need to be an animal to rip your head off your shoulders! You hear me?! I'll freaking kick your ass!"

Naruto, to every officer's shock, had on a large smile as he waved at Beastboy like they were long time friends, looking relaxed as Hell, "Yeah, I'll be waiting! Next time you might want to try different animals to make it a fairer fight!" A very, VERY loud profanity was cut thanks to the gates of the van being closed. Naruto still had on a very large smile even when he stopped waving. He put his hands on the back of his head, "Well, that was fun… it's been a while since I had someone wanting to kill me… Kinda missed the challenge."

It was official: Naruto was not in as much touch with reality as many would like him to be. But others wouldn't want him to be any other way.

XXXXXX

After a session of rooftop jumping with Emil close behind in the chopper and the police staying at a safe distance due to the threat to Pam's life, Naruto finally arrived at Gotham's ducks, where his next enemy was patiently waiting for him.

Meanwhile, Pamela had successfully made her way off the chair she had been in. It hadn't been easy, but she was currently outside of the room she had been held captive in. Sadly for her, she was atop a very large, abandoned building. And while out of the room meant she was safe, the rest of the building was covered in dirt, trash and had its once white walls peeling off the paint due to the humid air and obvious lack of life. It all had that Silent Hill vibe, no enemies in sight, just that unnerving feeling of being watched by someone or something in a dark and overwhelming empty hall, and the true dread of being alone in a place that seemed to have no escape. All windows were covered by steel curtains, and due to this claustrophobic like state she was put in, she could feel her body weakening. She needed air, fresh air, and some sun, this whole place felt so closed that it was like no fresh air was allowed in…

That's when a terrifying occurrence came to her: there was no ventilation, no way for fresh air to come in. The whole place was sealed tightly, all doors had been closed and didn't even have a keyhole, and despite being quite a spacious hall, she felt that the atmosphere was more oppressive the longer she stood there. If Naruto didn't find her and soon, then…

No. She wasn't going to give up. She knew that her bodyguard wouldn't give up until he found her, so she could at least do something to find him, or at least make sure she could breath until either help arrived or she managed to find a way out. If she at least could find any form of plant life, then it may give her at least some chance to get either more air through those steel curtains or help her get down.

However, one of her assumptions was right, someone was looking at her. A shadow watched in interest while making Pam's experience as dreadful as possible, but feeling some joy whenever the girl found a way out, only to crush it with a booby-trap. But she also wanted that blond guy to find this redhead, if he had beaten Beastboy like that, then he needed to be studied. Whatever he was, it felt similar, even familiar, to what she was.

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap!**

**Now, time for you readers to help with something. Tell me, which one of the Titans would you like to see Naruto fight next? I'm not making a poll, just wanting to see who and why, and then see what I can make out of it. Still, the fights, scenarios and settings are already planned, all I'm giving you is the chronological order in which Naruto will face them.**

**Man, am I having fun writing this fic! And I can't believe it… Whenever I type for this fic, it feels like I'm a kid again, having fun with my own adventures… When I write my other fics, it's starting to feel like a chore when I have an idea that I know can work, and I try to make it work. But this sort of mindless fun, rather than me experimenting on new possible personalities for Naruto, possible stories nobody ever thought before, or just simply the heck of doing something different, it feels truly fun.**

**Don't get me wrong, I won't ditch my other fics. I mean that I might get to this one whenever it feels like I'm being asked one too many times to write something and then I need to take a break from. And with some of my fics I either try to think of the perfect idea, try to come up with a perfect storyline, clever comebacks or make things seem cool just to see a perfect fic. This fic is sort of my break from trying to come up with clever, original and satisfying ideas for my other fics. It's like my stress reliever, and so far it's working quite a lot on me.**

**So, from now onwards, I'll do this with all my fics. Because now I finally remembered what it's like to write not for readers to enjoy a story, but for me to make a story that is both fun to write as it is to read because it was made for the sake of fun.**

**Swordslinger out!**


	5. Chapter 5

I OWN NOTHING, now I'm gonna have to recommend for you to listen Metal Gear Rising's soundtrack for this and any future battle.

**XXXXXX**

You're too slow

As our friendly otherworldly mercenary approached the docks, he received a call from Emil, "Hey, Naruto, you sure you don't want me to snipe any of them out of the way? What if they have reinforcements hidden in the shadows?"

The kitsune, who was busy jumping in the city's roofs, replied with a wave to the helicopter behind him, "No, if any of them fall down before their fight, or it is some part of the Bat-hole's game, then Pam may be hurt if it doesn't go according to their plan."

The Russian sighed, "Listen, kid, I know that. But you can't possibly expect me to stand by like a moron while you jump into a trap."

"That's why you're nearby. If the prick plays dirty…" he started for Emil to finish.

"We got your hide, got it." The soldier said with reluctance, "Still, if you need ammo or anything, give us a call. I'll keep on patrolling the city along the others. Take care and beat them to shit, kid." And with that, Emil returned to look for any clue about Pam's whereabouts.

Naruto had finally arrived to the docks, an industrial set of storage buildings all lined up in a concrete harbor. He finally stopped jumping from roof to roof and landed softly on the ground. As he approached the sea there was that sense of things being completely wrong. He knew things would one way or another get to be completely wrong, but the anticipation was nerve-wrecking. The feeling that constricts one's chest when the aura of bad vibes comes around, telling you that something is just waiting to pop out and give you a scare. But to be honest, knowing he was going to fight whoever was creating that gave him a sense of determination. He couldn't let his new opponent get out easily after trying to kill Pam, and now holding her hostage for some stupid game like this.

And that's when he heard it, a fast paced movement that drifted in the wind. It was gone as soon as it came, but it was followed by a voice, "Fancy meeting you here."

Naruto turned to look at the top of a storage building, his back turned to the sea, and found his new opponent. It was a guy about his age, maybe a year or at much two younger, with short red hair spiked backwards. He wore armor: a fitting full-body armored suit with dual yellow lightning shaped streaks running across both arms and legs as well as the chest and ending inside a pair of armored red boots and gauntlets (kinda his stealth clothes, with said dual lighting decorating said parts to add some color). He also had a mask similar to Artemis' but with a pair of red goggles atop his forehead, kind of how Naruto used his old ones when he was a kid.

"So, you are…" Naruto started as he turned with his hands now on his pants pockets.

The redhead smirked, "I am one of the Titans. Kid Flash." The redhead said with a smirk, crouching over the edge of the building he was in, "I must admit, your fight with BB was fun… Guess he couldn't do with raw power, but I got my tricks." And with those words Kid Flash disappeared as a blur of speed, moving faster than lightning, and now standing three feet in front of Naruto, "So, how fast can you run, Naruto?"

Naruto, with his hands still on his pockets, shrugged, "I don't do speed." He admitted, in all honesty, even his fastest tricks weren't about him running at speeds defying nature, "But I got my tricks."

With those words, and a few flash pellets that flashed a blinding light into the speedster's wide eyes, Naruto was able to use the distraction, having turned around to avoid the flash, and used the surprised to move a fist back and punch Kid Flash right in the kisser. The stunned redhead fell back, even rolled a few yards back from the force of the punch. He was still working on getting his sight back while struggling to get back on his feet. Being on his hands and knees allowed his opponent to run at him and kick him in the chin, forcing him to groggily stand up. Then the blinded redhead felt a hand grab one of his shoulder and pull him forward, where his nose was met with Naruto's rather thick forehead. It was a good thing the blond had experience getting hit in the head in violent manners, it helped to deliver powerful waves of pain even through armor with his head alone.

As Kid Flash fell flat on his face, victory seemed at hand, key word being 'seemed' on that sentence. Naruto barely reacted when he heard a powerful torrent of water coming his way. His sixth sense was as sharp as ever, and by the skin of his teeth, or better by his chin, did he avoid a jet of water powerful enough to crush some wooden crates that had been behind him.

As Kidd Flash's sight returned, the first thing he did was to get up on shaky legs and then glare at his savior, "Damn it, Aqualad! I told you I got this!"

Naruto turned on his feet to look at a guy that was definitely his age with light blond hair cut at the bottom, brown skin, pale green eyes, high cheek bones, a lean build, though the kitsune was leaner, and gills at the sides of his neck. He possessed black, eel-like tattoos that ran across his arms and wore red muscle shirt, black combat pants and seemed to carry dual swords on some sort of backpack. However, he was barefoot, and his feet showed the signs that they served for both walking and swimming with a membrane interconnecting them.

The boy identified as Aqualad crossed his arms, "And you were being easily defeated by someone you claimed would fall in three seconds flat."

The redhead gritted his teeth, "That was a lucky shot, nothing else." He said as he turned his glare to the other blond, "You better stay away from this."

"We're near the sea, I have the advantage." Aqualad replied calmly.

"Yeah, a boring advantage." Kid Flash said with the same logic a kid would have when fighting about who'd get to play a videogame.

Before the two started to get on Naruto's nerves, said kitsune spoke up, "How about a coin toss?" he said, taking out a quarter. "Heads, Kid Flash. Tails, Aqualad. Then, I fight the other one. How's that sound?" he asked with a large, friendly smile, holding the quarter up. The duo looked at each other, and then at him.

His answer was a simple water whip hitting the quarter in his hand so hard it split the coin followed by a supersonic punch to his kisser. Naruto rolled on his back until hitting a concrete wall with his back, which he was considering to go check with a doctor if not for the chiropractic session with Beastboy in the museum. He got up to look at Aqualad holding a water whip in one hand and a water saber on the other. Kid Flash was nowhere in sight, but the sound of wind was more than enough to tell Naruto that the speedster was on the move.

He instantly took a defensive move by crisscrossing his arms in front of his face, blocking another haymaker at the speed of sound. The blond skidded back on his feet, lifting clouds of dust as he was sent backwards into the storage buildings, where Kid Flash would have the advantage with his speed and several obstacles to hide behind. However, the speedster's plan was stopped by a water whip wrapped around Naruto's waist. The blond was then yanked by superhuman strength into the sea face-first, his body lifted seven five stories above the sea.

Kid Flash looked at Aqualad taking Naruto to his advantage fighting ground. "Hey, it's my turn! I'm the one supposed to fight him now!"

Aqualad smiled softly, his eyes closed as he waited for Naruto to dive in the sea, "Sorry, but since I have the advantage, I'd get the job done faster."

They looked at the sea, where Aqualad had some company for the blond, to see the kitsune sink to his doom. Their mouths almost hit the ground when instead of plummeting like a rock, the blond was skiing as his feet hit the water. Water walking was very useful to break his fall, but the laws of friction were rather hard to get as he skidded on the water to a complete stop, lifting waves as he forced his chakra to find himself a place to stand on.

Naruto, finally tired, withdrew his wakizashi, holding it in its inversed position in his right hand while aiming said hand's index finger at his attackers, "You two owe me a quarter."

Kid Flash grinned, "Hehehe… Well, this fight keeps getting better and better."

Aqualad shared his eager grin, "Indeedly so."

The speedster ran at Naruto, moving fast enough to simply ran on the water at supersonic speeds, the aquatic warrior dived into the water, calling for back-up. The redhead, being the fastest, started to run around Naruto, wondering how to end him. Maybe creating a tornado where the water would rise up along the blond and drown him, or simply dash from one side to another to punch him in every blind spot. Well, the idea of making the blond pay for his cheap shot with his own bare hands sounded pretty good for Kid Flash, but killing him slowly and, more importantly, before Aqualad was what he liked more. Naruto watched as the water started to raise as the speedster kept on running faster and faster. And in a few seconds a large portion of the sea was forced to create a tornado to trap and drown Naruto.

But, the blond soldier of fortune was a bit faster, "Hey, over here." Said the still living and kicking blond kitsune, waving at the tornado while Kid Flash worked on believing what he saw. Naruto had been trapped, he had no chance of escaping, so how…? And that's when a yellow flash appeared beside the speedster before a punch was firmly planted on his face for the second time that day. Due to the speed he was running to, the recoil caused Kid to skid on the water, pretty much like a stone would skip if one threw it with the right technique, and ended up falling face first on the docks.

The redhead once again groggily got up to look at the blond. Naruto was about to give chase, but remembered that Aqualad had some sort of trick. He knew it was a trap, but he needed to get this guy too if he wanted to see Pam alive. The light of the moon gave little to no sign of life, but it helped to show him the shadow of something coming his way. The blond instantly leapt to one side with his wakizashi held up to block a slash from Aqualad's Water Bearers in their saber form while a gigantic shark the size of a bus almost bit off half of Naruto's body.

"What the?!" the blond shouted in shock as he had seen the aquatic boy riding the shark like it was some sort of horse. He sensed movement below him, and in the same instant did a back-flip to one side, avoiding the enormous shark from swallowing him in one go. As Naruto jumped to avoid being bait he was unable to parry a whip lash from Aqualad. The hit stung, it got him on his back and even despite the armor it was still going to leave a mark.

Naruto fell on the water, and without a decent footing he was forced to swim until he could get up. Sadly for him, that shark was very fast. "Oh fuck!" was Naruto's only thought as he swam faster while the shark opened its huge jaws to swallow both water and the kitsune like in one of those bad shark movies.

Soon Aqualad moved his faithful ride to face Kid Flash, who gaped. "You bastard!" the redhead shouted, shaking a fist, "It was my fight! I wanted to see him break by MY own rules! I was supposed to make him snap! You didn't have to turn him into fish food! For fuck's sake, Batman wanted him alive!"

Aqualad grinned softly, "Even so, it didn't help he wasn't that much of a challenge to begin with. If Batman was truly interested in him, then the fool should have proven himself better-"

Suddenly, something warm and wet hit Aqualad's face, and it wasn't Kid Flash's spitting on him, literally, for taking his fight. The redhead was equally shocked, even if he had been prepared to spit at the aquatic soldier. What hit the water controlling Titan was blood. He turned to look down, where a certain familiar short blade popped out of the top of his shark's skull, wiggling around until twisting violently to one side while the large sea creature was now shaking uncontrollably in pain, throwing Aqualad off its shoulder and into the docks. Naruto's roar of disgust and anger was heard even from the insides of the shark's mouth as he struggled to not fall into its stomach.

"You gotta be shitting me!" was all Kid Flash could think of saying as Naruto finally found his footing on one side of the shark's inner cheeks and withdrew his katana.

The shark trashed as best it could to make the blond fall down its throat and into its stomach. Naruto, tired of the bad breath, stabbed his new katana on the lower jaw. The shark jumped up in pain, its head skywards while the blond spun around with both blades following his movement and cutting off the shark's head. Once without the head in his way Naruto was able to be free, that meant that the violent movement of the now dead body sent him flying at the docks where he fell face first with the large fish's head landing a few feet away from him.

The blond panted as he got up to his feet, being very glad to have fresh air in his lungs even if he was currently covered in shark blood from head to toes. He could definitely use a shower, but then again he didn't want to have anything to do with water or sea food for a decent amount of time. On the other hand, at his side was a large shark head, and on the sea, getting a nice salty taste, was the rest of the body… He wondered if the Wilson's would enjoy some shark soup and if Slade would allow him to have a trophy around the house or at the very least a cool shark fang necklace.

Kid stared at the blond as the soldier of fortune wiped his swords clean off shark blood, "Well, I guess it's time for me to take things seriously." He said in an uncharacteristic serious manner, "Aqualad, you should return to the base." And before the aquatic warrior could reply, the speedster continued, "You wasted your turn, and you clearly don't have the advantage. Besides, didn't the boss want you for something important?"

The aquatic soldier gritted his teeth, "Fine, you better stop making a fool out of yourself and finish him." And with that, the blond Titan ran to the sea to dive in.

The kitsune tried to stop him, but was stopped by Kid Flash standing on his way. "You and I have a fight to end, you bloody fox." He said, trying his best at an English accent with the last line.

Naruto deadpanned as he aimed his katana at the speedster, "Your sense of humor is worse than Beastboy's, at least he was comically lame." He then got into a stance with both fists up, the katana resting on its sheath and the wakizashi in its own. Blood still dripped off Naruto, which gave quiet a scary appearance to the blond.

Kid Flash, rather than feeling intimidated, grinned, "Did it feel good?"

"Huh?" was Naruto's most clever answer.

"Killing that fish on super-vitamins. Tell me, did it feel good?" the redhead said, motioning with a hand to the shark's head, "You can't deny there was a sense of satisfaction when you killed it, am I right?" Naruto didn't reply, so the speedster continued, "Oh, what's the matter? Can't come up with a clever comeback? You killed; you should feel great for it. You won!" the redhead shook a fist up, grinning wider, "Come on, you bloody fox! You can't tell me there wasn't joy when you proved that overgrown sardine you were better! You're still covered in its blood, and it doesn't faze you!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes coldly, "What of it?"

Kid Flash chuckled at the reaction, "I see… You killed before, didn't you?" he sped off to the top of one of the storages' roof, crouching on the edge and grinning widely at the Bloody Fox, "I can see it in your eyes, hell, even if Megan didn't tell me about sensing the blood in your hands, I can clearly see death doesn't scare you. Dying or killing, it's the same to you, isn't it? Tell me, Bloody Fox, how happy are you to chop away? Those swords of yours aren't just for show, you must have taken a lot of lives with them, haven't you? Come on, I wanna know! I want to fight someone fun for once! You're strong, I'm strong! That's all that matters to live!"

Naruto just took a step forward, glaring coldly at Kid Flash, "You're just full of shit." He stated, "If you think I kill everything that stands in my way, why don't you come around and find out if that nickname you're giving me fits or not?" He then slammed his right fist into his left palm with force more than enough to cause a resounding echo, "But I'll warn you, I don't like to hold back against guys like you."

Kid Flash grinned much more, "Then let us see who dies with a clear conscience."

(Play Metal Gear Rising's OST – The Stains of Time, Monsoon's theme.)

Naruto didn't wait any signal or any sign of attack, he instantly knew how to act. He stepped forward and threw his right fist in a direct punch. His knuckles collided with Kid Flash's, who had charged with all his speed to do the same. The speedster had on a very large grin of excitement, but Naruto was showing him a very stoic face of determination to beat Kid's grin out of his face. Both didn't dare to move back, they kept their knuckles firmly attached to each other's as they tried to force the other back to make him fall. Naruto was using all his chakra to remain firmly planted on the ground while Kid Flash tried to keep up while running in place, his feet kicking up large clouds of dust like some car burning rubber.

An idea came to mind, if the speedster wanted to go, then who was Naruto to stop him. To Kid Flash's surprise, Naruto moved his fist back, allowing the speedster to move forward far too fast for him to stop from getting a second head-butt right on his nose, which was possibly cracked now. Naruto then grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him in a sweeping motion, sending him flying against a pile of crates. Kid now laid in several broken wooden planks which were fortunately emptied earlier that day. However, rather than being angry, the speedster was grinning. He flipped back onto his feet and started to run in circles, creating a small tornado.

He hollered in excitement, "Speed-Force, Fox! The strong's power!" he shouted as the crates, the broken planks and anything that wasn't nailed to the floor was sucked into the small tornado. Having a very bad feeling, Naruto drew out his new katana and held it in both hands in a samurai's standard battle stance. A few seconds later Kid started to kick any of the objects in the tornado at Naruto, and being able to run faster than sound meant that the kicked objects moved at the same speed.

With trash bins, crates and splintered planks coming his way as fast as bullets Naruto was forced to slice them in half or block them whenever he could. Training with Slade in swordsmanship was good to know the basics, but thanks to Wade and his resourcefulness the blond was able to combine both their abilities as he moved the blade in circular motions or used basic combat moves such as a simple vertical, horizontal or diagonal slash along back-flips.

"Is that all you have, Bloody Fox?" Kid Flash taunted as he stopped kicking objects and started kicking up dust, creating a small dust-storm that blinded Naruto. "Fear the unseen, Fox?" The speedster taunted more as he moved in the cloud of dust around Naruto. The blond sheathed his sword and took on his battle stance, closing his eyes and using his enhanced senses. He could feel the life, the excitement and the need of a good battle flow all around him, but it was mostly focused on one spot. He raised his right arm, blocking a kick, he then used his left arm to add more strength into pushing the offending leg away. Then what came was a hook to the gut, stopped by his left arm this time. He tried to kick Kid, but the speedster disappeared once again on the cloud of dust.

'_Damn it, only time I can get close enough is when he hits me…_' that was a risky idea he was having, but worth a shot. In the next second his gut was presented to Kid Flash's right knee. He forced himself not to bend over from the force, even if it made him spit some blood. The speedster grinned as he finally connected a hit to the blood covered blond, but was soon shocked when his leg was grabbed by the bloody kitsune, who grinned a bit sadistically at him, "My turn." Naruto said, spinning around and lifting Kid Flash as if he were a rag doll. He then lifted the speedster up, before bringing him down violently on his back. The redhead even bounced, which Naruto took as an opportunity to jump up, grab him by the head and slam his face on the ground.

However, Kid Flash reacted rather quickly, and to Naruto's shock the speedster started to vibrate, vibrating so hard he not only started to burn his hand through his armor, but passed right through the floor and then appeared a few feet away, vibrating his molecules to lift himself from the ground. Naruto got up, still unsure of what he had seen as the speedster decided to taunt some more, "So these are your true colors, Bloody Fox?" He ran at Naruto again, repeating his previous punch, but just as Naruto dodged the fist by tilting his head to the side and was about to deliver a powerful counter, Kid Flash once again vibrated his molecules to pass right thought the blond and then use the advantage kick him on the back. "Does it hurt?" he taunted as Naruto stumbled forwards before turning with a death glare, which made the speedster taunt him some more. "How eager are you to bathe in someone's blood, Fox?"

An idea popped in the blond merc's head, "I don't need to." Was Naruto's simple reply, as he sat cross-legged before the speedster and with his katana on his lap. He looked coldly at the speedster, "I know how you think, and I've already won this."

Kid Flash's smirk turned upside down as he charged at the blond, ready to vibrate his body to pass through him should the blond do anything. But the blond wasn't moving, he just sat there looking coldly at him… Was he giving up? No, did he have a plan? Argh, it didn't matter, he was a weakling! He just had to be put down!

However, Naruto id have a plan, just as Kid Flash was close enough for his knuckles to be just an inch away from Naruto's face, the blond grabbed his new katana. Before Kid Flash could react, he had been stopped dead in his tracks, he was gaping and his eyes were wide in horror. He grabbed his right side, and when reaching he felt something warm and wet on his hand, looking at it, his fears were confirmed. Blood. Naruto had cut him in just a split second. He was behind him, smelling of that shark's blood, but with his katana drawn out with its edge tinted red by Kid Flash's blood.

The blond wiped the sword off the blood and sheathed it. When the handle met the sheath Kid stumbled as he felt a bit more blood ooze out. He was still conscious, he was still alive, and the wound, while deep, hadn't hit any of his vital organs. But, he was pissed, "Argh… I'll kill… you… I'll kill you!" he shouted, running in circles around Naruto with the intent to punch him hard enough to remove his blond head off his shoulders, "I'll crush you, weakling!" and with that he charged, but the blood loss and the wound made his turn hurt him enough to stop him dead in his tracks, forcing him to grab his wound, and allowing Naruto to deliver a cross kick to his face.

Kid Flash crashed into a wall, his body embedded into it in a crucifix position. He then saw something that scared him out of his wits: Naruto charging with his sword drawn and ready for blood, and all he could do was one thing, scream, "No, stop it!"

And the last thing he saw before Naruto's blade met his neck was darkness… Naruto let out a sigh and sheathed his bloodless sword, "Coward…" he mumbled as he saw how the unconscious Kid Flash fell from his residence in the wall, still in one piece. He grabbed the speedster and laid him on the ground gently before starting to tend his wounds with the small first aid kit supplies he had in his pouches.

"I am nothing like you." Naruto said as he turned up to look at the zeppelin, watching as the screen showed how he had scared Kid Flash into unconsciousness. The redhead would certainly get quite a shock when he woke up and discovered his head attached to his shoulders. But Naruto didn't care, he simply aimed a finger at the zeppelin, which camera was showing the situation live, "Hey, Bat-hole! Next time you send me someone to fight, make sure they're not full of themselves or think they can handle a death-or-alive situation!"

XXXXXX

Back at the Titans' HQ, Connor was a bit shocked, "Did he really win by making Kid Flash piss his pants?"

Megan sighed, "That idiot is always willing to go into a fight without understanding what it means. When he first saw his life about to end, he simply couldn't handle it. And that's what that damn Fox used to his advantage."

Artemis groaned, "That nickname is gonna stay, isn't it? Why couldn't we just call him an idiot?"

Aqualad, who had returned a few moments ago, sighed, "Because, much as I hate to admit it, that 'idiot' is far too unpredictable. He's killed one of Atlantis' best hunting sharks, fought Superboy mano-a-mano, and even fought off Megan's psychic probe."

Red Arrow, who was examining his new cybernetic arm, asked aloud, "So, who will fight him next? Kid Flash passed out before giving him the message, and Aqualad already lost his chance and is tasked with something far more important."

The sound of Batman's voice was his answer, "Decide that by yourselves, just make sure that he is brought alive… And Aqualad…" said aquatic boy stiffened, "You have much to answer for almost killing him."

The blond growled, "Yes, sir."

"Ah-ah-ah… is that any way to talk to your king's friend?" the shadow asked with a mocking tone.

Aqualad glared, "You're just his friend because he ordered me to work with you. We Atlantians have a deal with you, and it better stay that way."

Batman chuckled, "Very good, for a moment I thought you lost your spine when running away from our Bloody Fox."

Connor slowly rose a hand, "Are we seriously gonna name him that?"

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap! Sorry if the chapter is short, but when I was done I just wanted to deliver it. I must admit I had an almost sexual, trouser-tightening pleasure when writing it. And that's a pleasure that'd only come to me if I were reincarnated as Anne Hathaway's toothbrush, which is one of my many wishes in life along watching Devon Aoki wipe them out in her costume of Miho from Sin City. So, yeah, I hope you enjoyed it because I certainly did.**

**Swordslinger out!**


	6. Chapter 6

I OWN NOTHING, so I guess it's time to do a little twist with a special someone here.

**XXXXXX**

Titan girls have issues

While Naruto had busied himself with a shape-shifting green kid, a water manipulating warrior with a gigantic shark as a pet, and a speedy guy far too eager to watch action, someone was busy with more important things. For the last couple of hours Pamela had been relentlessly kicking one of the many brick walls. Frustration lead to the most desperate methods, but she was not the kind to give up. So there she was, in the middle of some old, abandoned building, kicking bricks until she finally watched her hard work give some results. Her feet finally found no more resistance, so she turned around and looked at a decently sized hole, enough for her escape. Now all she needed to do was get out… and climb down seven stories.

She gulped, hard. The fall would kill her, no questions asked. No trees or any other sign of life around or below to help her. Had she just even a seed… Well, better not look at a gift horse in the mouth. So far she had literally broken free, all she needed to do was look for a way to climb down. And as luck would have it, to both her relief and dread, there was an old rusty pipe beside her. She definitely liked the idea of a escape route, but the pipe had seen better days.

She felt angry, she wanted to be angry, but the problem was she didn't have anything to vent that anger on. Then the thought of her bodyguard crossed her head. She wished he hadn't gotten away, that he had done his job and stayed by her side. Then again, he did go to the lengths of questioning those who intended to murder her. It wasn't his fault that the Titans and their boss were slippery rats. And since he was tasked with keeping her safe, then she should at least make his job easier and pull her own weight like she did when helping him with Superboy. Pam's only wish was that this wouldn't end with her body having to be removed with a spatula.

The girl carefully reached for the pipe with both hands, and once getting a firm grip she didn't let go from it or from her position on the floor. This was terrifying, thanks mostly to that sensation of vertigo now growing in her stomach and making her blood hit her feet. With a loud gulp, she closed her eyes and swung herself out, closing her thighs around the pipe and cursing the air current under her skirt. Well, at least the whole place seemed abandoned. There was nothing but abandoned buildings and trash around her. She wondered where she was, but that'd have to wait after she got out of her little prison.

With a sigh, she started to climb down, careful with her step. That was until something hit her forehead, getting a small yelp from her when she saw it bouncing from the walls. It was a screw… And soon a loud cry of rusty metal followed it. Her heart skipped several beats as the pipe cried. And then she felt that yank of gravity that said loudly, "You're fucked."

Pam fell down at high speeds while clutching the pipe for dear life as she screamed her head off. She listened how more and more parts from the damn thing started to fall apart along her as the screws couldn't support even a young, petite sixteen years old vegetarian girl. But after what felt like an eternity she felt another yank, but this one pulled her up. She held tighter to the pipe as it rocked her back and forth as if trying to shake her off. Once the movement stopped she looked up and down. The pipe's lower screws were very resistant, supporting the hanging metallic tube and keeping her in the air about ten feet above a car.

"Better than nothing." She sighed to herself and braced for impact. Letting go of the pipe was easy now that she had a place to land on, but it still hurt a lot in her bum. She groaned, getting up and massaging her back. Luckily she hadn't broken the old, abandoned… SWAT van? She got up and looked at it, it was an old, bullet filled, vandalized SWAT van. It was wide open, its tires were missing, and everything of value was stolen while just a few bricks supported its weight.

Then she heard the pipe's last metallic cry. She widened her eyes as she rolled and jumped off the van before the pipe crushed her head. Well, she thought as she dusted herself and tended to one numb and bruised knee, she had escaped death two times in a row, maybe her luck was changing. Oh, but what cruelties can the indecisive wheel of fate do to one in a whim.

"Geesh, I didn't think dark and brood would actually let me do this." A voice said behind Pam, startling her, "I mean, now I have you here, literally fallen from the sky."

Pamela looked at the figure of another petite girl. This newcomer was just two inches shorter than her, and possibly two years younger. The girl had long, blonde hair, with a pair of simple goggles acting like some sort of tiara atop her head. She was also skinny, noticeable despite am opened brown, baggy biker jacket on top of her body. She wore a black T-shirt with a golden logo, a "T" inside a circle; a pair of very short gray shorts, brown boots, and gray gloves. But what was most noticeable was the fact she was on top of a flying chunk of earth.

"Who…?" the green-skinned redhead started.

The blonde chuckled, "Oh, I'm Terra." The girl said with a wave, as if she had been Pam's friend for a long time, "And since you're trying to escape, well, I guess this is a better time than any to kill you." Those two last words didn't make Pam feel comfortable, at all. Terra suddenly smirked more sinisterly, and as she did the ground below Pamela started to shake. A small crack formed below her feet, before growing into a large crater in seconds. Fortunately, Pam knew that if things looked bad it was better to jump back. Terra growled a bit as she moved her hands to the crater, forcing several rocks fly out and orbit around her. The environmentalist's mind quickly told her to book it like she had never booked it before.

All the while the rocks missed her, even if barely. Abandoned cars, walls and anything that wasn't running from the blonde girl who wanted schoolgirl blood was crushed under the powerful impact of rocks flying almost as fast as bullets. Pam dashed left and right, feeling her heart pounding and her lungs greedily demanding oxygen. She was tired, kicking a brick wall for hours, and then falling from a building only to be pursued by a blonde who wanted to kill her unlike the other blond was draining her energy rather quickly this night. She also hadn't had anything to eat, that grape juice from the cafeteria when she met Naruto was the only thing she had today because she had planned a hearty meal when back home. Those fries tortured her mind, she just wished she could at least make fruit grow out of the trees on that park… Wait, trees?!

Yes, there were trees in a nearby park. The whole place was burned, same with the trees, but they still seemed to have some life if the few green leaves on their gray branches indicated anything. Making a fast turn and then a bee-line straight to the park, Pam could almost hear an angelic choir cheering for her to go on, less she wanted to be literally six feet underground.

"Shit!" Terra cursed lowly as she raised a hand and tried to destroy the park, sending the ground below to blow up in a geyser of dirt. She had been told to kill Pam immediately before she found any barely living plant on the city. She had snorted, thinking that Wayne had done a good job at killing anything that wasn't industrial. How wrong was she, for several roots and branches shot from the airborne trees to protect Pam from the rocks. Pam sighed in relief as the trees flourished with life, fresh new leaves blooming beautifully while they protected her for giving them back their almost lost lives.

Terra growled furiously as she used the dirt and rocks she had taken from the park and sent them down to crush Pamela. Sadly for the blonde, the redhead's loyal trees did a great job at keeping her safe by whipping any offending pebble away from Mother Nature incarnate. Due to the fact that roots can dig themselves in every kind of soil, it was easy for the trees to keep their mistress safe. But Pam wasn't done, she gave her loyal guard a boost. Terra watched with wide eyes how the trees grew several times in size, with Pam sitting calmly in one of the branches as the roots and branches kept on growing and growing while flying at the earth manipulating blonde girl.

Terra finally snapped, "Just die already!" she shouted, sending boulders after Pam, which the redhead's trees swatted away, "You're just a loner! You have nobody to fight for! Just your stupid plants!"

"I find them better than most idiots around." The green skinned schoolgirl said as she lifted her hand and the trees dug deep into the ground, before shooting their roots up at Terra, who had to maneuver away from them.

The blonde flew at Pamela, shooting rock after rock at her, "Well, I have somebody!" she shouted, "He may not be the smartest, his jokes may be lame, but he's the only one who treated me as a human being. He and I are freaks for others to laugh at, but he just laughs at it." Tears started to stream down Terra's face, "And now… Now because of that stupid guy you hired, he's about to be tortured by the boss!"

"Naruto…?" Pamela asked a bit shocked, her bodyguard seemed to be doing well in her rescue for what she was hearing about, "What's happened to him?" she demanded, concerned because even if he had fought the Titans those mercenaries were ruthless to say the least.

Terra exploded, "He beat my boyfriend! He even mocked him! And all so he could save your sorry, plant loving ass!" The blonde shouted at the top of her lungs, forming a spike on her hand as she lunged at Pamela, intent on ending her life, "If you die, then it's game over, and maybe Beastboy will be forgiven for losing to your stupid boyfriend!"

"H-He's not my boyfriend!" Pamela stuttered with a furious glowing green on her cheeks while her trees shot their branches at Terra, capturing her and keeping the spike away from the nature mistress.

The earth controlling girl proved she was a sore loser, "Well, then tough luck getting a boy! Mine prefers them flat, so I'm A-Ok with my relationship! But since you're just in between… Yeah, I see that idiot following even the girls in my team over you any day of the week instead of an average girl like you."

"Why you little…" Pam felt very, very tempted to squash the girl like a bug. However, the blonde was doing this for someone else. Even the environmentalist could take pity on that.

"Time's up, Terra." a voice startled the two, making them turn to look at a floating, blue hooded figure.

The blonde felt as if a stone had hit her stomach's bottom, "Wait, I can still-"

"The boss wants her alive now." the hooded figure said, with words as cold as the fear in Terra's veins. She then turned to the redhead. Pam tensed herself, trying to think of any possible way to defend herself in case this new enemy attacked. The hooded girl simply mumbled something, before a massive darkness covered everything. The hooded girl flew closer to Pam, speaking in a monotone void of emotion, "You ever wondered why the mayor wanted to hire mercenaries to protect you?"

"I don't need them, never did. The mayor wanted to hire them for my protection, but I'm capable of taking care of myself." Pamela said coldly, aiming her hand forward and sending her trees against the hooded girl, who once again mumbled something. Pam's eyes widened when the shadows moved to life and sliced her trees' roots and branches before they could touch the newcomers. Fear was an understatement of what she felt now.

"It may be true that you're powerful, Pamela. But some of the Titans and I have more than enough methods to kill you. Besides, do you really know how to fight?" Pam growled… sadly, she had to say no. She was a lover of nature, not a fighter. The hooded girl continued, "So far your newest employee seems worth the money. Be thankful that old man of the mayor convinced you to have your new bodyguard. He does seem interesting to fight."

The darkness increased, and all Pamela knew next was a deep slumber. The hooded girl turned to Terra, said blonde girl bowed her head down, "I-I'm sorry… I tried but… I couldn't do anything for Garfield…"

The hooded girl turned away, "What do you have to excuse yourself for? I don't care for Beastboy, neither from you. I was just asked to take that girl into a safer prison."

Terra grabbed her arms, hugging herself, "Do you think that if I had killed her I could have saved Garfield from being punished?"

"You were desperate, so I'll give it to you straight: no. You and I know how Batman works, he wants to see that Fox being broken after he's beaten. And what you did…"

"I know… I know I'll share BB's punishment… But at least I can be with him to try to cheer him up." The girl said as her teammate opened a dark portal and sent her back to the base.

The hooded girl sighed, "This is going to be a long night…" she looked down, a small pebble shaped like a heart was in front of her feet. "Stupid lovebirds… Love will just bring them sorrow. One day they'll realize that." She said solemnly, however, there was a strange edge in her voice before she disappeared into the darkness.

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, back in the docks, a recently bathed Naruto was closing the hose he used to clean the blood off him. He was now dripping wet, but it was better than smelling of blood and dripping wet with blood. He had also used the hose for his gear and armor, cleaning them while remaining in just his pants and boots while still having his wakizashi in his right thigh's holster. He still smelled like sushi, but at least he was clean. Kid Flash was already taken with one of those collars to prevent him from using his super-powers, and the night was still young. However, with Pamela in danger he couldn't rest.

He walked to get his clothes back on, only to listen to the sound of… laughter? And before he knew it, someone had yanked him from his feet, flying at high speeds up into the clouds with him feeling very cold due to the height and the fact the water of both the hose and the sea in which he had battled a shark were ice cold. So, rather than screaming for whoever was pulling him up to stop, he hugged himself while his teeth clattered. The blond moved his arms up and down to get some heat, but the heat wouldn't be a problem soon as he looked at who was carrying him. He looked at orange skin, red blazing hair, emerald green eyes, a killer figure, an outfit not even a showgirl would dare to try on, and some strange green energy in her hands. The need for heat was easily solved as the girl threw him up and fired a blast at him. He blocked the shock with his wakizashi, infusing some of his wind chakra to stop and deflect the blast. At least the heat from the star-bolt served to warm him up, almost as good as the view he got due to how he had been carried… Ok, he seriously needed to stop thinking about that ridiculously sexy and revealing outfit.

It seemed he had landed on some office building roof. There were two big AC machines in one corner, he stood in the center with his headband's lace still tied around his forehead, and there was an orange skinned babe before him. The cameras were rolling, and what Naruto took as a serious battle with his life on the line, the crowd took it as fan-service. Naruto was very well built thanks to his training with Slade: lean body with pure muscle, well-toned arms, a six pack and hard as iron pectorals. He was balanced in flexibility, strength, endurance and speed. However, his opponent seemed to be balanced in her curves and… ahem, assets… Damn it, that outfit was far too distracting. He needed to focus… No, not on the boobs!

The blond stood in a crouched battle stance with his wakizashi in an inversely held position before the orange skinned girl, watching carefully as she started to take slow steps with a certain sway in her curvaceous hips. "You're certainly amusing." The alien stated, "To think you can beat Friends Beastboy and Kid Flash, not to mention the Superboy and our archers… Yes, perhaps we can have a little fun…" she said with a giggle in the last word. She then bowed slightly before him, "My name is Koriand'r of Tamaran. But you are allowed to address to me as Starfire, which is the way you can translate my name to your language."

Naruto looked carefully at her, not sure what to think, but feeling something familiar in her, '_It's like I've met her before… But where…?_'

Starfire looked at his serious expression, unable to restrain a smile as she held her cheeks, "Oh, such a strong look that you've got… I wonder, after you bathed in that shark's blood… is your blood any good?"

Naruto's eyes almost popped out of their sockets, '_Oh fuck! I'm fighting Anko-nee with superpowers!_' he unconsciously took a step back.

Starfire was confused, "What is it? You were so brave with my friends…" she said, her mood changing her expression to a disappointed look.

Naruto shook his head, '_P-Pull it together! Remember, Anko-nee may have been a crazy psychotic bitch all the time when not around me… But that's because she was a crazy psychotic bitch with anyone who'd piss her off. So, all I gotta do is treat this chick as if she were Anko-nee and my enemy at the same time… Ok, that's terrifying no matter how I slice it._' He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, "So, what's your reason for fighting me? Your job, you hate me, or is it because you just want to have… fun…?" there was an uneasiness in him when saying the last word, mainly because knowing that fun for Anko meant you'd lose something important, and no, not one's virginity in the pleasurable way.

She smiled once more, "So, interested in my persona?" she said, floating up in a cross-legged position while cupping one of her cheeks with one hand and letting the other caress one of her supple thighs. She gave him a curious look before smirking a bit, "Well, I can tell you I fight for my own amusement all the time. To feel the battle's heat rushing through my body is so exhilarating…" she seemed about to moan there, making the blond gulp while his body heated a bit more, "However, there was just one downside to it all. I am a warrior, and a rather good one at that, maybe too good." She then looked at him and smiled in a sweetly way that made his every nerve go haywire, "It's been so dull to fight weakling after weakling… Just punching them into the stars. No threat, no challenge, not even a good cause to fight for… until..."

Her smile soured, making Naruto grip his wakizashi tighter, '_Touchy subject, I guess._'

Starfire turned serious, and anger started to raise in her tone, "Well, this planet offered a good fight; I even fought my new boss… But, as you may have deduced, I was no match for him. None of my teammates were. Even together we couldn't lay any harm on that man." She then looked at him, her smile returning, "So, if I could defeat you, the man he is so interested in now, I may be one step closer to actually enjoy a battle."

"Wait, if you just want to fight, then why don't you join me to take Bat-hole down?" Naruto asked, trying to be reasonable.

But reason didn't work on sadists, as Starfire showed by her giggling, "Because then I'd lose my purpose… To fight is the only thing I'm good at, it feels just so… glorious…" she smirked at him, "I want to endlessly feel this thrill… To be able to find a true challenge, someone who unlike the Batman didn't cheat… Someone like you."

(Play Mad World OST – You Don't Know Me. Elise and Rin Rin's theme.)

With that she charged at him, actually flying and delivering two quick jabs at the blond mercenary. He simply crisscrossed his arms before his face and let the blows land on them to measure her strength. She was certainly strong; he heard a bone crack but fortunately not break. The red haired sadist actually smirked, even when she had to use her flight to try to send the blond flying back, the fact that he was resisting her strikes and not stepping back was truly fun.

He stepped forward with chakra on his feet helping his steps, and pushed off the girl. The blond griped his wakizashi tighter and jumped high in the air, his right leg coming down onto Starfire, which she blocked. But he didn't give her time to block the slash. She widened her eyes and flew back, but without avoiding the blow. He had managed to leave a cut in her right arm. Interesting, he wasn't going for the kill, but instead he was aiming to incapacitate her.

"You're truly interesting." said laughed dryly, smiling still, "You want to cut me? You want to touch me? Or do you want to bore me?" she sighed a bit, looking at the gash in her arm before licking the blood, then turning around and smiling at him in an Anko-ish way, "You're taking the fun away if you don't hurt me for real."

He bared his teeth at her, his fangs showing off, "Sorry, but you don't have the right to decide how I fight. I'm not a maniac like you." He then charged at her, sheathing his short sword and moving a fist back.

She saw the blow miles away and stopped it with her arms; however she was amazed and shocked the moment the blond merc's other fist made contact with her stomach. He had actually managed to make her cringe in pain despite her tolerance to pain. As she took a few steps back, Starfire couldn't help but smile more, "You're good, but holding back, like when battling Kid Flash. Why, are we not good enough?"

His groan was clearly heard with a lot of exasperation, "I told you I don't fight by your rules. I do what I want and when I want, and right now I want to beat all of you and kill the son of a bitch of your boss." Those were the last word he said before she swept him off his feet, making him curse. Once he landed, he started to roll back to avoid a star-bolt where his head had been a few moments ago.

As soon as he stood before Starfire she couldn't help but crack a smirk, "Yes, your way of fighting is different… But that seems to be a weakness." Her smirk grew as she looked at him rather well, "But for someone who has such a weakness, you seem to train very well in how to cause pain."

He charged, "That's because I know what it means to fight for a reason." He said as he dodged several star bolts coming his way by weaving around the shots. Once close enough he threw a fist, she managed to block the punch with one arm, but he didn't stop there. "All I'm good for is to fight." He exclaimed delivering a kick to her side which she was once again forced to block, with her leg this time, "But I don't want to fight for fun!" he shouted, upper-cutting the alien, making her fly back to avoid the blow but he kept on charging, "I don't care what your boss has against Pam, or what is it he gains from this stupid show!" he said, delivering punch after relentless punch without giving the girl a chance to take a breath, "I just want to beat the crap out of assholes like him, so others can at least have some peace in their lives!"

He jumped up, bringing a knee skywards to block her guard. Naruto took his chance to grab her head and bring his down; slamming his forehead on Starfire's hard enough to make her see stars when falling flat on her back. "That's all the reason I need to fight, some prick who's hurting others for a stupid, selfish reason." He stated while cracking his knuckles.

At that moment, the blond should have taken a few steps away. A soft sound escaped Starfire's smirking lips, "Heh…"

He groaned, "Oh, what now?"

Starfire started to giggle more and more, "Hehehehee… Ahahahaahahaha…" she stood up, holding her mouth with one hand as she looked at Naruto, "Is that it? Is that the reason why you fight? Just because you despise others who fight for selfish reasons? To protect those who are weak?" she started to laugh, in a merry, creepy way, "Hahahahahahahaha! That is so entertaining! Hehehehehehe!"

"What's gotten into you?" the blond said, getting ready for anything.

Suddenly, Starfire stopped laughing, sitting on the floor with her legs sprawled as she looked down, her long curly hair covering her face, "You sound just like them… Just like all the rest… Saying that it's right to protect those who can't fight… And yet you… You hurt me… And it feels good…" she gave him a truly merry, cheerful grin that should have been placed in an angel's face, not a sadistic alien's. "You just say the same nonsense about fighting what is wrong… And yet you make sure that I'm hurt… It's all so much fun!"

(Play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance OST - A Stranger I remain)

Starfire instantly flew at him, punching once again. But this time, when he blocked the punch, Naruto knew that this girl was seriously stronger than he thought first. She had easily sent him flying back into one of the AC machines of the roof, leaving a large indent with him embedded on it. He felt his ribs crack painfully and his right side started to bleed. He tried to look for the alien girl, only catching her presence when she flew above him, both hands together as her star-bolts radiated powerfully. He cursed loudly as he pried himself off the machine and jumped away just when the blast hit the AC. The explosion ended up sending him flying forward and landing unceremoniously on his face, skidding to a painful halt. His chin, once again, was hurt this day in a very painful manner. But instead of a burn it was a gash, which if it weren't for the fox's chakra in him would need a few stitches.

As he got up he found himself face to face with a smirking Starfire. Before he knew it, he was being held in a very powerful bear-hug. His ribs were cracking even more, though right now he was confused. Should he be in pain from the hold of an alien who was strong enough to lift an entire house, or should he do something about the softness and warmth on his chest that proceeded from her rather big assets? Either way he wasn't given much time to answer as he was carried up by the orange alien, who grinned mischievously at him. He grunted while struggling to both break free and not give her the satisfaction of knowing that her bear-hug hurt. But soon she reached to a stop, twenty stories above the roof, and smiled at him. She looked at his bleeding chin, which was slowly healing itself.

"Come on, not a single last minute trick? I thought you'd be more interesting. You were the man who hurt me tonight." She said, smiling as she closed her face to his. And to his utter shock, she licked the blood off his chin, making him blush a bright red as she savored it with gusto, "Hmm… Sweet and a bit spicy… I'll try to remember this taste."

She then moved herself and him upside down, reminding Naruto of one of Rock Lee's trademark moves, and knowing that a pile driver from this height would crush his skull into a bloody pulp, he had to think of something fast as the giggling girl holding him flew at her top speed to watch his head pop like a grape being bitten.

A large cloud of dust rose from the roof as the building shook entirely. Soon Starfire stood up, looking down with an actually sad and disappointed look, "He hurt me… He was able to fight back. Ah, well, I guess I'm getting too efficient when fighting. Too bad, he did make it fun…"

"Thanks." Before Starfire could turn around, she felt a roundhouse kick right on her spine, sending her flying down on her face. She got up to look at Naruto, standing up and wiping the blood and saliva off his chin. And just as she was about to ask how he was alive, she saw it. A log, a simple, wooden log had replaced Naruto before his head became the first whiskered pancake. "How's that for a last minute trick?" he asked with a stern look on his face, his fists up and his wounds slowly healing.

Starfire smiled. '_I like this earthling, I certainly do._' "I don't know how or why you changed places with a log, or why would you have a log in the first place… But I got to give you the credits, friend. That last trick has prolonged our fight."

"Sorry, but I intend to end it." The blond said as he watched her every move for any incoming attack.

Her smile turned a bit mocking, "Oh, why not? Afraid I might outlast you?"

"As if! I could still fight you all night long and still have more fun for you for an entire week!" Naruto shouted, before realizing what he just said and shamefully face-palming, '_Damn it, now I sound like a perv!_' And in the afterlife, a certain sage sneezed while watching the women in their hot-spring time, alerting the group of well-trained assassin ladies.

Starfire smirked wildly, "Well then, let's see how much fun you get out of this!"

The girl put both her hands together and fired a concentrated version of her star-bolt right at Naruto. Instead of running, the blond had a rather crazy idea. Just as the energy beam closed in he grabbed his right wrist with his left hand, lifting his right hand at the concentrated green blast. Starfire's eyes widened when she looked at this blond mercenary do something defying logic. He had created an orb of energy, a vital energy coming from him. But what shocked her was that the instant her star-bolt hit it, the orb started to absorb it, giving the orb a more greenish tone.

Naruto felt his every pore crying in pain as he forced his chakra to move and capture Starfire's blast in his Rasengan. He roared when he finally captured it and grabbed it with his right hand, holding the hot ball of pure energy in his hands. Starfire was utterly shocked, "What are you?!" she cried as he swung his arm at her, letting go of the Rasengan as if it were a baseball.

The redhead barely registered the ball of pure energy flying her way until she fired another star-bolt at it. She thought it'd blow up at a safe distance from her, but it only made the Rasengan grow more and more unstable as it reached her. She flew up, just as the ball of energy hit the ground. The explosion was hear all around the city as the entire building shook violently. And despite not being hit directly by the blast, the shockwave was powerful enough to hit her like a bull to a mouse. She cried in pain while flying higher, before starting to fall.

Her body was in pain, her eyes fluttering as she tried to remain conscious, until she landed in something soft, warm and firm. She snapped her eyes wide opened when she found herself in Naruto's arms, before he held her close with his right arm and had his left hand aiming his wakizashi closely to her neck. He looked sternly at her, as if mentally challenging her to try anything else. Getting a closer look… he was quite handsome, and had very nice eyes.

"Do you give?" he asked, poking her neck with the blade, making sure not to pierce it but making sure his point was noted.

She, rather than try to fight back, smirked, "Fufufu… I guess… Just for you…" she said, trailing a finger on his right whiskered cheek, "However, this is just because I can't fight anymore. When I get better, I'll be sure to enjoy a lot of fun… Tell me, do you think you'll be able to hurt me more?" she smiled, like a schoolgirl getting her dream date with the perfect guy, "If you do… please, use your fists some more…"

Naruto felt very, very, very scared, '_Yeah, like Anko-nee… on opposite day._'

In the afterlife, said snake mistress looked down with a smirk. She was glad someone would pick up the pace with the kitsune, even if she took pain rather than give it.

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap!**

**So, why make Pamela fight? For two reasons, to make sure that she's not another damsel in distress, and also showing that I plan on making even the minor characters have a relevance to the plot, unlike a certain other (*Cough* Kishimoto *Faked cough*). And second, to answer your question of why would Naruto be hired if a chick controlling nature like her could fight off the Titans. Oh, she can fight some of them back, but the kind like Raven… Well, those are better left for someone who has demonic power in him too.**

**But, mostly and personally, because I want to give all the baddies turned heroes here a chance to shine, even if small. Like next chapter, when Emil will prove his worth. It also works for character development, even if I'm not good at it I'll at least try, unlike a certain other (*Fake coughing Kishimoto's name*).**

**Also, as some of my most loyal and loving readers may notice, I love BB and Terra together, though I also like him and Raven but she's taken here. Anyways, I'm doing this because I love the green guy, but to clarify it's in the heterosexual way in which you'd love a bro. I adore him from his cute little pointy ears to his personality, he's fun, his jokes are comically lame, and the kicks to the balls he recieved in both comics and shows make me pity him. Ok, so I may be kinda fan-girl on him, but you could say the same about every person with an obsession for a role model.**

**Swordslinger out!**


	7. Chapter 7

I OWN NOTHING, so shut up about it and let me go crazy.

**XXXXXX**

The spoils of war

Having reached his gear, after the cops took the smirking sadomasochistic alien girl with them, Naruto put on his armor, tightened his bandana, and held his weapons closely. After a quick trip to Memory Lane, he remembered that Starfire told him he needed to get atop some large building, a memory he immediately ended before that moment when Starfire winked at him and told him she'd eagerly look up for a rematch in which both would bleed more. He shuddered at her definition of the word fun, and after a quick call Emil arrived to give him a ride to Wayne Ind., which made bad vibes tense the air. The whole place smelled of chemicals, and it was all clean, like sparkling clean. First there was the typical office building with several booths for the slaves that Wayne called his workers. And behind it was a large, equally sparkling clean, factory with fumes coming out and making the people in the chopper cough a bit. Both facilities were surrounded by large storage buildings all around the area while the whole place was on the far side of Gotham.

"Shit, no wonder that client of yours wants that cleaning project working." Emil said with a handkerchief covering his mouth and searched for some gas masks, throwing one to his fellow blond.

"Thanks." Naruto said as he put on the mask, "So, what should I expect? I mean, is this place dangerous, has weapons, or does it make war vehicles?"

"Far as I know, as well as the public, Wayne makes medicine and only that." The Russian man said, breathing better thanks to his mask, "But with this factory, bastard must be rolling in dough, I bet. Selling medicine and polluting the city, causing illness with the fumes and getting money from the people who need his drugs to get these damn fumes out of their systems... I mean, with all these damn fumes in the air, who the hell could breathe at all in the city if some wind blew the stench their way."

Naruto slowly rose up his hand, "Umm… can you get back to the making medicine part?"

Emil groaned, the kid wasn't the brightest, but at least he was strong as Hell.

XXXXXX

Back in the cave that served as the Titans' HQ, Batman sneezed. He wiped his nose and turned to look around, fortunately for him no one was nearby. And then he called his remaining Titans: Artemis, his apprentice and Megan. He arched an eyebrow at some of the missing members. Aqualad was back in the sea, going to meet an associate of the shadowy madman. But Superboy and Red Arrow didn't have any orders.

"Where are they?" he asked dryly.

The smaller, younger shadow bowed to him, "Superboy wanted a rematch, and when noticing he was missing Roy went after him."

Batman sighed, he had seen this coming, "Well, if it means that Naruto can finally be put down, then that's fine with me."

The young shadow rose to his feet, "But Master! They're disobeying your rules!" he cried in an outrage, "You already said that the idiot would fall! Even if they went in as support or to take another shot in a second round, it would be a complete waste of time!"

Artemis chuckled, "What's the matter, Boy Wonder? You sound disappointed about missing a date with Whiskers." The small shadow turned around, pulling a retractable staff which with he attempted to hit Artemis, who blocked it with her bow. She smirked, "If you want to make this personal, wait for your turn. Naruto is a better challenge."

"You two aren't going to fight him." Batman stated dryly, stopping their fight with a hardened glare, "Robin, Artemis, you two will have part in the mission for tomorrow noon." He then turned to the redhead, "Megan, if the other three fail, it'll be up to you to make sure Naruto falls."

Megan clenched her right hand in a fist, '_And then I'll put that idiot in his place…_'

Robin growled, "Master, why don't you send all of us directly against him? It'd be easier, not to mention we may be able to save your business from complete destruction. And it would stop us from using Raven in a fight."

Batman chuckled, "Did you forget what Naruto is capable of?" he asked, moving to his computer and showing them feedback of some of the blond boy's techniques, "He can walk on walls and water, move faster than the human eye, is strong enough to carry things ten times his size, sense all sorts of dangers around him, multiply himself, substitute his body with an object, and even control some powerful inner energy." He turned to his protégé, "If a warrior knows something is that knowing an enemy is one of the many steps to victory, and the more I know about this fox, the easier it'll be hunting him down."

Megan's mood soured, "So, we're nothing but expendable guinea pigs for you to find out how to defeat that whisker-faced idiot?"

"A very human approach, don't you think?" Batman said with a merry tone, "It worked well to keep Raven from going berserk on the city, it has helped Superboy to achieve greater power, and it even has helped you, Megan, to stop worrying about your uncle and do your job."

The Martian instantly got furious, "Don't you dare bring Uncle J-"

"Oh, but I can." Batman said as he got up to his full height, towering over the now terrified alien girl, glaring at her with such an intense gaze that made Megan step back. And he still spoke with his smarmy voice, "He is a member of the Justice League. He and I work together to keep the world under our control. I do it for the money, mostly, but you and him do it to take down the humans who are too weak to even get the honor of serving any of us. So, you'll keep on doing what we tell you… Or do you want to disappoint your uncle, who, need I remind you, hates humans even more than you do?"

"Fine…" the girl mumbled, looking away from the smirking shadow.

Batman chuckled in that smarmy way of Bruce Wayne's, "No need to be so dramatic, kid. Besides, I am doing a great sacrifice by putting the work of my and my father's life on the line. I know there'll be damages thanks to Naruto's next fight, but sometimes sacrifices are necessary. That, and the insurance as well as the city's need for my medications will make my pockets have the necessary money for my new project." He then turned to his protégé. "Is the fight arranged as we planned?"

The small shadow nodded, "Cyborg is on the medical research section. Once the fight starts, we'll release more fumes so Naruto coughs his lungs out."

Batman smirked, even with a gas mask Naruto would be affected by the condensed poisonous clouds that his factory made. But Cyborg wouldn't, being more machine than man he was immune to the fumes that made Wayne's drugs, and not only the medical drugs. Sometimes being rich was too good to be true, but alas, he was enjoying every second he had to spend such a fortune in this fun.

XXXXXX

Once getting to a heliport atop the factory, Naruto didn't wait for the chopper to land and jumped down. He looked all around him for any incoming attacks, but saw nothing but pipes of all sizes making a mess, several containers of all shapes and sizes connected to said pipes, and a few buildings around them. The real factory was underground, but the refinery and everything that distributed the drugs was upstairs, looking normal as well as the underground facilities. Once landing he tensed his body, ready for anything. He looked up, at the large zeppelin that was broadcasting the future fight in its large screens. Next thing our hero knew was that the enormous flying machine exploded. A large ball of fire engulfed the skies, lighting the city like the sun had raised over it. People started to cry in horror as the remains of the machine fell down… right into Naruto!

Back in his cave, Batman smirked. It was a sacrifice he always made, it helped to avoid anyone tracking the machines back to him, and since he had money to spare, he wanted to see the blond either crushed under a burning pile of debris or survive with several scorches to be beaten by Cyborg and the toxic fumes from his factory. Luckily for him, his real products that allowed him large incomes of money were in the office building that were far way from the factory. Underground facilities that no soul knew or spoke about unless they wanted death to come their way may have been used by the Umbrella Corporation, but it worked for him very well.

Naruto ran, trying to reach the helicopter from which Emil was shouting at him to hurry up, extending a hand to the boy. But it was with great shock that both watched a large blue blur of energy erupt from the ground in the middle of the factory, in the center of the large maze of pipes, and hit the chopper directly in its tail. Naruto watched in horror as Emil almost fell down, had the sergeant not grabbed the door's handle he'd have died like a bug under a boot. The chopper shook itself violently from side to side as the pilot tried to stabilize it. Soon there was a loud crashing noise on the other side of the factory. Naruto cursed and tried to use his Hiraishin to warp where Emil had landed, but that required some focus and it was quickly interrupted by the gigantic fireball coming down on him.

"Worst. Night. Ever!" Naruto cried as he jumped off the heliport. A second passed and the zeppelin finally crashed, sending a large explosion that blasted Naruto faster through the air, making him crash into several of the pipes, bouncing from one to another until he landed on the floor, flat on his back and feeling pain in parts of his body he didn't know that existed in the first place. His gas mask had fallen off; it now laid beside him, cracked in two and with the lenses broken. Worse part, besides the pain, was that the fumes were getting overwhelming for someone with a sensitive nose like his, something that sucked if you were a hanyo with not only super-human abilities but also super-human senses.

He looked around; it seemed the fire had extended itself since some parts of the factory were blowing up due to their highly combustible chemicals getting in contact with the fire of the zeppelin. There was nothing but debris and fire as far as he could see while getting up. The whiskered youth got up to sit on the ground slowly and carefully, his bones felt like napalm, he had blood in his mouth, and his bandana was missing. He still seemed to have his gear, swords and explosives were intact, and his armor had lessened the fall or else he would have faced serious bone fractures and maybe even some ruptured lungs. He made the quick mental note to thank the Wilson family for the gifts. But if he wanted to see the mercenaries face to face, he needed to make sure their common friend Emil was still alright and kicking.

He finally got off his ass and made the horrible discovery that his right knee was dislocated. He cried out loud the moment he tried to move said leg, and then he followed it by mentally cursing not asking for more medical supplies, seeing as he used more than half the ones in his pouches to heal Kid Flash after almost gutting him, and the rest was used on him after that fight with Starfire.. He sucked up the pain, put his bandana in his mouth, biting on it, and looked around. Naruto growled into the bandana and grabbed his knee, not daring to count as he instantly snapped it back into place. The pain shot through him like a bullet in the form of a very horrible sensation, like three simultaneous stabs through the bone, making the blond fall back on the ground. On the good side, he got it right in one go, on the down side, he had horrible pain on his knee and now on his head due to jerking it back too much. Once the pain stopped he pulled his bandana out of his mouth and tied it around his head; luckily he hadn't drooled on it.

The blond stood up on shaky legs using his katana for support, and once on his feet and with a slightly limp leg he walked through the factory and into a large opening. "Okay, time to rescue Emil." He said with determination, but the instant he gave his first step forward, a second, louder and heavier step appeared.

Naruto had seen this guy already; he was the one who took that cheap-shot in the police department. That memory made the blond step up, ready to pummel the living machine to a pulp, but as soon as he got to his feet he coughed a bit of blood. That last punch had done some inner damage. He looked at the cybernetic young man, who had a strange cannon where his right arm should be. The end of the barrel didn't have any hole; it was designed like some sort of boom-box. Did this guy fight with sound? Ugh, bad memories about a certain village returned.

Cyborg smirked, "Does it hurt, Mr. Maelstrom?" the machine man asked in a light cackle, admiring his arm cannon before it morphed into a normal hand, "You see, this factory is special, unless you have your lungs replaced with machines that filter any sort of poison, you won't feel a thing. But since you don't…" he looked at Naruto, and smirked, "Well, I could either wait for you to pass out from the chemicals, or get the job done faster."

"You wish." Naruto said. However, his vision was starting to get blurry. That punch's sonic waves did damage Naruto from inside out, and that was something his healing factor wasn't used to, not to mention the poison getting in his body. His demonic chakra could burn it down, the problem was that the stench and the amount all around him was starting to get to him.

Cyborg picked this up, "So, starting to feel dizzy? How about some burns in your insides? No, nothing like that?" he asked, acting friendly, before chuckling a bit, "You see, little man, this factory is filled to the brim with drugs of all sorts. Your friends in the chopper are lucky to have fallen out, but you drew the short straw and now are getting the fire to pollute the air even more to slowly eat your lungs. Medications are the main sauce that's being cooked here, but too much of rich boy's medicine, or any medicine, and your body will start to feel sick. Ironic, isn't it? Too much of something is bad for you, and too little of another will be bad for you."

"I don't have time for listening to your life story." Naruto said as he sucked up the pain in his leg and started to walk towards Cyborg.

The towering teen approached the limping blond with a large grin on his face, "You know, Mr. Maelstrom, you don't get any of this. It's just a little business called war."

"You mean war against a girl who just tries to make this place cleaner and less shitty?" Naruto asked, getting ticked off, the fumes were starting to cloud his mind and this guy wouldn't let him go through without a fight.

Cyborg shook his head slowly, "No, not only her. War against everything and everyone is what makes the world go around." He emphasized the point by smashing his fists together, "And in this world, in this day and age, there's no such thing as not enough or too much war. Not when it helps people like me to exist, not to mention that they give people like you a reason to fight."

"Don't put me on the same level as you sadists!" Naruto growled while struggling to stand up, the smoke was starting to cloud the entire area, making it difficult to see. "I don't kill for pleasure, and I certainly don't fight just to cause others pain."

Cyborg chuckled, "You still don't get the picture… It's almost kinda childish listening to you talking about it…" he extended his arms to his sides, as if to show how much metal his body was made of, "Look at me, I was just a human until a little war changed me. Now, I see it: we're all weapons. No matter how you want to see it, little man, we're all made to fight, take and kill just to survive. In this world everyone is nothing but a weapon for the highest bidders to get. So, I am not willing to let go of my rank. Thanks to war, thanks to every single selfish whim around the world, I am useful as a weapon. And it is thanks to the Batman that I like being this."

Naruto, starting to lose his patience with this guy's talk and the chemicals drowning his lungs, replied with a growl, "You like being an asshole, or you like being his little bitch?"

Rather than listening to him growl, or try to punch him out of anger, Naruto was surprised when Cyborg snorted before letting out a hearty laugh, "Hahahahaha! Oh man, I can tell that you and Beastboy would have gotten along just fine!" the cybernetic teen wiped a tear out of his eye, before handing something to the blond. It was a syringe, the kind one would use for an adrenaline shot, containing some strange blue liquid. Naruto arched a brow at the metallic man, "It's a vaccine, it was made so the workers from this place could handle the chemicals." He then smiled warmly at Naruto, "You should take it, otherwise fighting you wouldn't be fun at all. There wouldn't be any reason for me to take on a weakened enemy."

Naruto looked at the extended hand, reaching into it to grab the syringe before stopping and looking suspiciously at Cyborg. The large man nodded with a smile, as if telling him it was okay to take it. Naruto didn't waste a second and grabbed the mechanical teen's hand… Before lifting him and throwing him through a wall of pipes, and out of the cloud of burned chemicals. He proceeded to follow the cybernetic man, jumping after him and out of the fire, taking a few deep breaths of fresher air, still polluted, but at least with less fumes getting into his system.

Cyborg, who had rolled out of the factory, stared in disbelief at the ground beneath him where the supposed vaccine was, and with a growl he slammed his right fist into the syringe, before morphing it to its cannon form. "How the hell did you find out?!" the large teen asked, very angry now.

Naruto spat on the ground, "You think I'd trust you after you attacked my friends?!" he shouted, aiming a finger at Cyborg. Both stood in an abandoned parking lot, the fire sizzling behind the blond as the sound of sirens approached them. The firemen would be in for quite a show for Naruto was finally mad, "Besides, you gave me an antidote for something I don't even need." He hooked a thumb to his chest, "I've been poisoned by far worse things since I was a kid, you'll need more than a stinking factory of drugs to take me down!"

Cyborg gritted his teeth, '_Damn it, he's actually a real genius or just too damn ballsy!_' he then forced himself to calm down, keep his cool, and spoke up, "You have no idea what you're dealing with, little man. Batman controls this city, if you fight against me or the Titans, you're declaring a one man war against true gods. The Batman isn't alone in this game, and while I've been upgraded to stay in this game as one of its final bosses, there are far worse players in this."

Naruto took out his wakizashi, holding both swords in a dual stance. "Then bring them on. I eat gods for breakfast."

Cyborg was annoyed at both the attitude and the corny one-liner, "Yeah, you and BB would've gotten along just fine… if you just weren't dead."

(Play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance OST - Red Sun. Sundowner's theme.)

Naruto then watched as Cyborg's body started to morph. Several layers of metallic alloys shot from the man's shoulders to cover his entire body in a denser armor. New pieces of armor expanded and attached themselves on his arms, torso and even the legs, but the head remained exposed. The body seemed as if the athletic, Olympic built of the half-machine man had buffed itself up. Cyborg's armor gave him the build of a tank, but he was armed better than one. The upgraded metal man grinned cockily at the fox mercenary.

"Like I said, little man… We're all weapons for the business of war." He said, his right arm morphing to a bigger canon, "And I plan on getting my spoils from your corpse."

Naruto dashed at the Titan, who only smirked as his shoulder pads moved up. The blond watched as several missiles were fired his way while Cyborg lifted his left arm, which carried dual chain guns aimed at the blond boy's head. Taking a note from Wade's book, Naruto calmed himself, and focused… But it was hard, the fumes had really gotten to him and while he could have tried to charge through the fire, he was forced to roll away from the barrage of bullets and then jump away from the homing, heat-seeking missiles.

Cyborg took his opportunity and charged at the blond by jumping, morphing his left arm into a three times bigger version of itself with a large hammer where the palm should be. Naruto raised his swords to block the blow, but his guard was easily broken and two of his ribs were broken with a sickening crack. Naruto once again fell to the ground, clutching his chest where two of the ribs on his right had been broken while his armor now sported a large crack. This was bad, this was really, really bad. The problem wasn't his opponent, the toxic air around him had weakened him and messed with his senses. But not only that… It wasn't until now that he realized why Cyborg had been able to hit him in the first place…

"You… You're not even alive, are you?" Naruto asked, getting up as Cyborg marched towards him.

"That's right." The cybernetic man said with a grin, "No more flesh to slow me down, no more exhaustion to be felt, and it's all top of the notch technology that makes my life much easier. No more hunger, no more pain, and the best of all, no more people who can hurt me."

Naruto growled, '_Shit! Sage-mode and all of my senses work on living beings… Damn it, if I could at least activate Sage-mode, I'd be able to read his moves better… But those damn fumes… Ugh, I'm getting dizzy… Fuck, am I losing blood now?_'

Cyborg smirked, "Hey, don't take it personal, little man. It's just business, and business is good with you DOWN!" He charged with a punch from his right canon-arm. Naruto side-stepped it, but when Cyborg hit the ground he fired his main weapon, letting out a powerful sonic blast that shook the ground with so much power that it broke and blew up, sending shockwaves that threw Naruto back on the floor. He then attempted to stomp Naruto once again, but the blond man rolled away and jumped up, swinging his swords towards Cyborg's face. But the cybernetic Titan raised his arms, blocking the chakra-less slash and making Naruto step back. The blond cursed again, he was tired, too tired, and his energies were currently being wasted burning the damn toxins in of his body.

But Cyborg kept on with the attack, he delivered a powerful hook to Naruto's face, drawing some blood from the fox merc's mouth. He followed with a kick to the side, making Naruto's broken ribs crack more. He then grabbed Naruto's head and head-butted him, making the blond stagger backwards. The large teen grinned more as he grabbed the blond by his armor and started to rip it open. Naruto tried to pry the arms off, but was instantly kicked down by the robotic teen, who had successfully tore apart Naruto's protective gear.

Naruto finally fell, exhausted… He had fought the Titans, and to this point he didn't get any rest… He was tired, he was dizzy from the damn poison in the air, and he had been beaten, blasted and even devoured all night long. If he wanted to win, he needed his energy back. The blond tried to get up once again, but Cyborg finally managed to stomp his head, making Naruto lose the grip on his swords. There was a sickening crack as the concrete of the parking lot cracked under Cyborg's weight and strength. He raised his foot up, looking down at Naruto with a smirk.

"You should have taken the shot, it'd have knocked you out. You would have been sleeping, and not in this pain." He stomped Naruto's head again, "Had you taken the easy way, you wouldn't be in pain!" another stomp, this one burying Naruto's head in the ground by a few inches, "And you wouldn't have to be humiliated all over the city!" a fourth stomp, this time putting Naruto's entire head on the ground, "And, you'd have seen your girlfriend's death so you didn't have to bother for that dead-weight!"

Just as the metallic foot was about to crush Naruto's head like a ripe melon, Cyborg was shocked when two bare hands stopped it. He was even more shocked when his entire body was being lifted from the ground and then tossed aside like some rag doll.

"I'm such an idiot…" Naruto mumbled as he got up. With his armor ripped, his torso was only covered by an orange muscle shirt. The only parts of his armor that were in one piece were the orange boots and gauntlets with black fingers. Luckily, the sheath of his katana was still on his back due to the loosely hanging belt on his torso not being attached to the armor. He spat some blood on the ground, looking intently at the shocked Cyborg with a stoic look on his face, "For one moment… I forgot what I was dealing with." He said in a calm, cold manner.

"Forgot what?" Cyborg asked as he got up.

Naruto grabbed his swords before starting to stretch as he let his and Kurama's chakra merge together, emanate from him in whirls of golden ethereal energy, "I forgot that I was dealing with a nut-job." Naruto said calmly, getting into his battle stance with his fists tightened on the handles. "So I should finally stop pulling back my punches!"

Cyborg got easily ticked off, "What do you mean pulling your punches, you idiot?! Just because you don't want to die doesn't mean you won't!" he shouted as he fired another set of missiles from his shoulders before using his chain guns on the blond. He watched as the first flew at Naruto, who just stood there. Then his jaw almost hit the floor when Naruto charged and sliced the first and second missiles neatly in half before jumping over the rest. Cyborg tried to keep the bullets in between the blond and him as Naruto raced after him.

Then the blond instantly disappeared. Cyborg tried to turn around and find him, only to feel how a powerful strike on his back, a strike accompanied by the sound of metal slicing air and metal. The strike sent him flying face-first on the ground. "What the fuck… was that…?" he groaned as he tried to get up, only to gasp when parts of his armor fell down. The only reasonable thing for him to think was that Naruto had cut through reinforced steel with a simple pair of swords. He wanted to dismiss that thought, but it wasn't until the mercenary appeared before him with a yellow flash of light that he started to believe it. Since he was slowly getting up, standing on all fours, Naruto used the chance to deliver his knee right on Cyborg's metallic chin with a jump before lifting both swords.

The large machine man was shocked at the force behind the knee before the blond started to get busy. Naruto slashed and slashed at the torso, on the chest, aiming for the kill. No matter how many layers of armor Cyborg had put for his well-being, Naruto was cutting through them all one at a time as he crisscrossed his swords, like a dance in the middle of the air. He was easily sent flying up, for crying out loud, and he weighted over five tons. Not only that, but it hurt! It actually hurt him, even if he was more machine than man. The knee had already done him harm, but those damn blades had something… That damned golden energy of Naruto's seemed to be enhancing their sharp edges to not only slice the armor, but even put some hurt where some of Cyborg's remaining organs were.

As he fell down before trying to get up, Cyborg watched as Naruto still charged after him. He grinned and when the blond was close enough he morphed his left arm once again into a hammer. Naruto was hit directly on his side. Cyborg watched in satisfaction as Naruto flinched from the pain of his ribs breaking even more, but his mug had that merry expression easily wiped when the blond stabbed the cybernetic arm with his wakizashi and pulled the walking weapon closer. The blond ninja's katana was firmly impaled into the metallic stomach, passing right through it, leaving not only the large teen gaping dent but making a small sonic blast from the power behind it before he was kicked off. Cyborg's five tone body was sent flying several yards back.

Now Cyborg was furious, not only was this guy refusing to die, he was pulverizing him with some stupid magic. He shot up to his feet, crouched forward, put his hands together and let his arms morph into a sonic cannon the size of a car aimed right at the blond, "Booyah, motherfucker!" he shouted before letting loose a powerful blue blur of concentrated energy in powerful sonic waves. He laughed as he watched how the blow flew at the speed of sound towards the blond, destroying the concrete ground of the parking lot and obliterating everything and anything that it touched.

"Shut up!"

Cyborg was introduced to the second knee to the chin he received that night, this one far stronger than the last one. All he had seen before watching as his best weapon was cut off from his warms was a yellow flash and golden energy swirling around Naruto as the blond sheathed his swords. He tried to step back and find a way to fight back, but the blond wouldn't let him rest just like Cyborg had done to him. He felt another dent forming in his torso from a powerful punch, followed by another, and another and another. Each punch came faster than the later, and all were bit only aimed at the same spot, but carried more than enough strength to make Cyborg spit blood while half his torso was crushed into compressed metal, as if he were a can of soda run over by a road-roller. But the blond wasn't done yet, he channeled as much chakra as he could to his left fist delivering a liver blow that lifted Cyborg from the ground, before bringing his other fist to the same spot, making Cyborg bend forward in pain and leaving himself wide-open.

"Booyah this!" Naruto shouted as he crouched down, putting his entire weight down on his legs before jumping up, delivering a powerful upper-cut that was amplified by both the jump and the weight behind it, landing the blow once again on Cyborg's chin. Naruto sighed, feeling his chakra start to heal him, "If you want to keep going, I still got more and more tricks." He looked down on the large teen, "You better give up, because right now I won't pull back any of my punches against you… If you fight me… you will die." He said coldly, but it was obvious, and proved by the fact Cyborg was still breathing, that he didn't enjoy the idea of taking a life.

Cyborg sighed, "You're…a freak…" he then started smiling warmly. "But you shall be… a fun freak to defeat…for the boss… Hehehe… Now I'm just another useless weapon…" he extended one of his cut off arms out, trying to reach Naruto, until his systems shut down. Naruto watched wide-eyed as all the blue parts on the armor turned a dead grey, signaling that they no longer had energy to keep them going. The blond looked as the man's severed arm fell down with a simple thud before his entire body stiffened.

Naruto shook his head, said nothing and avoided to think about it, he just turned and reminded himself that Emil could be injured, so he had to find the sergeant and his soldiers. He let out a weary sigh, clenching his right fist. He didn't want to have gotten to such a level, but he was forced to stop pulling his punches. It didn't matter now, he needed to steel his nerves and beat Batman's sadistic once and for all. With that thought he sped off to find his friend.

However, he was unaware of Cyborg's cybernetic eye still functioning, watching as he left.

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, Emil wasn't having such a good time either. He had landed outside of the helicopter, falling flat on his face but still breathing. He currently felt like shit, an understandable situation after holding on to a door for dear life and then fall to what he thought would be his doom. But, as luck would have it, he hadn't fallen that down from the ground. He grunted as he moved each of his limbs to get up, glad nothing was broken, but he couldn't say the same for his ribs, three had to be cracked. He looked around, listening to sirens crying in the distance, and found the burning factory before him, and at one side was the chopper. The machine was intact, it had lost it tail but it didn't have any burns and whoever made it did a good job to make it fire-proof.

He ran to it as best as he could and moved into the cockpit, the pilot was out. He unbuckled the man and dragged him out. He gently laid the poor guy on the ground and checked his pulse… His bearded face paled. He grabbed the pilot's jaw with one hand and shook his head, "Hey, comrade, wake up!" he shouted, before slapping him, "Come on, pilot! Wake the fuck up! You don't want me to do mouth-to-mouth; I haven't brushed my teeth… Please, wake up and I'll give you my porn collection!"

"You mean all of it?"

"Yeah, all of… You son of a bitch!" the Russian sergeant felt the urge to strangle his subordinate, before lifting him up and giving him a bear-hug in joy, "Soldier, you're one lucky bastard."

"What happened to Naruto?" the soldier asked as he shook his head, looking at the fire, "You think he's-"

"Hey, I've fought the kid a few times." The Russian man said with a small smile, "Sure, I'm not on the level of the Wilson family… those guys can't be human to begin with, but fighting with Comrade Uzumaki helps one get some muscle… and learn how to take pain." He sighed at the memories of several layers of pads working as his armor when Slade would have him spar with Naruto… that kid wasn't human. He chuckled at that, "Besides me, that kid's one of the most stubborn bastards when refusing to stay dead."

"Well, you were always weird, sir." The pilot said, getting up with the help of his sergeant, "We should give a hand to our comrade, since now it seems that rat wants us dead."

"Heh, he can try." Emil said with his trademark shark-like grin. But his grin instantly vanished when the pilot stumbled forward, clutching his right shoulder. Emil widened his eyes when looking at a red arrow that had hit the soldier from behind, followed by three more that hit the soldier simultaneously on the chest as he stumbled. The sergeant heard another one coming, so he instantly tackled the pilot, making both of them fall face down on the ground, trying to be careful not to move any of the arrows, and grabbed his semi-automatic pistol from his right hip holster. He looked around, trying to find the archer.

"Fuck… today's not our night, is it?" the pilot said, taking the arrows slowly with grunts of pain as Emil surveyed the area. The sergeant cursed under his breath, the poor man was in bad shape already from the crash, and now he was turned into a pincushion by some bastard. But, he couldn't let the morale down, not now, not ever. That was something he learned from the hyperactive side of the Wilson family.

"Look at it this way, tomorrow we will laugh at this in the hospital when teasing comrade Uzumaki for having to rescue a real cute girl while sexy, busty nurses tend to us like we were kings." Emil said, aiming his pistol to everywhere he thought the archer could be hiding. If only he could run to the chopper and get his shotgun he may have a better chance.

The pilot chuckled, and despite having removed the last arrow with a small cry he smiled, "How sexy… and how busty would those nurses be?"

"Hmm… Jennifer Love Hewitt sexy, you know, the kind that is both hot and cute. As for busty… they'd have perfectly shaped double D-cup bust with a firmness worth a slap on the face." The sergeant said as he found that either the archer had banished or moved to a different spot. He risked it and got up, firing three rounds at random. He then grabbed his friend and dragged him back to the chopper while aiming at the factory in case the archer or anything suspicious showed up.

"How about the rear, comrade?" the pilot asked as Emil sat him with his back on one side of the downed flying machine.

Emil chuckled, "An ass at its finest… Round, plump and peachy, as in shaped like a peach… and just as sweet." He said with a grin, moving in the helicopter to get his shotgun and one of the med kits, only to get a boot to the face that took off his gas mask. The Russian soldier cursed as he got reintroduced to the fumes, but the wind was favorable to get some of the stench away, not all but it was better than nothing.

But whatever the soldier would want to say was cut short when an arrow disarmed him by hitting his hand-gun out of his hands. Then a hand gripped his throat and a cybernetic arm was aimed at his face with an arrow coming out of what seemed like a small cannon. Red Arrow smirked, "You really think a woman would get near you even if she was paid to?" he asked, mocking Emil's gruff appearance.

"Least I'm all man, boy." The Russian man said as he kept his right hand behind.

"I think not." Arsenal said when looking at what Emil tried to do, kneeing him in the gut. He let the sergeant fall down while clutching his stomach, "Besides, I ought to fight Naruto, as a way of thanking him for the new arm. If Cyborg doesn't finish him off, I'll make sure he's taken down." he took an arrow from his sling pack and opened a small compartment in his arm where a few more arrows could be put in like bullets in a magazine. "That stupid fox bastard may be strong, but I'm smarter. I just need to know where he is, and then see if he can out-smart an arrow to the face."

"Please…stop trying to convince yourself…" Emil said as he got on his knees, clutching his stomach with one hand, "If my comrade beat you once, you ain't a match for him. Trust me, I know. Cowards like you and your friends wouldn't be able to defeat him."

Arsenal growled and stepped forward, his cybernetic fist swinging down for an upper-cut. Emil saw the blow coming and crossed his arms over his face, blocking the attack and getting up by doing so. The sergeant watched as Arsenal raised his arm at him, holding it with his left as if it were a weapon. Thinking fast, and rather desperately, Emil pulled out a combat knife that was attached and hidden on his vest. The sergeant charged forward as Arsenal aimed at him, and in a split second it happened. Emil stumbled back biting down a cry of pain as he held the right side of his injured neck which had a very serious burn. Arsenal also stepped back as for the second time that day his laser cannon was destroyed, this time by a knife.

As Emil clutched his neck, which had its wound instantly scarred because of the heat of the blast, he looked at Arsenal pull out the knife from his arm and growl angrily, "You bastard!" the archer shouted, trying to fire again, but the machinery cried and sparked. It seemed he could still use it as a normal arm, so he charged at the sergeant for an old school fist fight.

(Play Ryu Ga Gotoku 5/Yakuza 5 – Mutual Fists)

Both charged at each other, Emil punching like the teen. They also made sure to avoid the other's fist, making their arms hook each other and leaving each other open. The sergeant felt a sharp punch from the redhead on his exposed side, which he returned by doing the same. Emil, while still human, was rather strong, which made the wind leave Arsenal's guts. The soldier used this to spin around, suing their linked arms to drag the teen around and swing him against the chopper, from which he bounced back at the soldier.

Arsenal watched as a punch came his way, but easily ducked under it and tackled the sergeant, pushing him to the ground. The redhead stood over the blond man and raised his fists, "I'm gonna punch you once for each cent this new arm was worth." He said, delivering a solid punch on one side of the sergeant's face, making him taste blood. Then it was followed by the Titan's human arm, it hurt less but it was sharper and more precise than the robotic arm.

Emil watched as the Titan raised his cybernetic arm, about to bring it down on his face like a hammer. His adrenaline shot through his body, forcing his arms up to stop the fist from crushing his face. The Russian man grunted as he kept the arm at bay, then grabbed the arm and rolled to his side, bringing Red Arrow down. The sergeant instantly leapt to his feet, getting into a loose boxing stance while Arsenal raised his fists. The redhead charged again with three fast punches. Emil blocked the first and stepped away from the other two, almost jumping back when a roundhouse kick barely missed his face.

The sergeant then pressed on the attack, trying to tackle the archer. Arsenal smirked and moved forward, grabbing the man in a head-lock, or rather trying to. Emil managed to get a hold of the teen and tried to lift him up. The redhead growled, trying to knee the man on the face, but Emil saw it coming and blocked it with his elbow. And because of the clinch both were in and the loss of footing for the redhead, Emil grinned as he lifted the kid up and then slammed his back into the ground, rolling over him to stand up.

The sergeant grinned as the teen got up, "Come on, come on, is that arm of yours really that cheap?" Arsenal replied by jumping at the sergeant. Emil did his best to parry and deflect a quick one-two combo, then raised his arms over his right shoulder to block a roundhouse kick to his head. Arsenal growled and used the momentum to deliver a back-handed punch, getting the man on the face which made the sergeant step back. The Titan kicked Emil once again, this time landing the hit on the sergeant's gut. The Russian man sucked up the pain when he watched another round house kick coming his head's way. He raised his right arm, blocking it, but used his left arm as support to push Red Arrow back.

Red Arrow stood his ground and charged again, trying to punch Emil, but the blond man side-stepped him and landed a direct punch to the kid's right cheek. Emil used the small opening he had to kick Arsenal in the gut, then grab the Titan's head and introduce it to his knee. Red Arrow stumbled back, but shook his head, glaring at the soldier. Arsenal charged, once again delivering punches with his right arm, forcing Emil to step back until the teen tried another roundhouse kick to the soldier's side. But when seeing the kick, Emil didn't retreat, he charged forward with a fist down. It seemed like time had stopped, but the adrenaline shot that they received at that moment made it end in a flash of white light when Emil punched up into the sky.

Then, it was just over, Roy was on his back, his jaw cracked. Emil let out a deep breath, wiping the sweat off his forehead. For a human teen, this kid was strong even without the cybernetic arm. The Russian man grunted when feeling soreness in his right fist; his knuckles were broken. "Damn it, kid's got an iron jaw…" the sergeant said as he shook his head, before turning to the pilot.

The soldier had passed out, which made the sergeant worry and run over him. He sighed in relief when he found a pulse this time. The blond soldier entered the chopper, exiting it a moment later with a medical kit and steel wires, said wires used for fast drops from very tall heights in case of emergency. He made sure to tie up the Titan before tending to the pilot, less the redhead woke up and attempted to use a hostage this time.

Finally done, Emil sighed and wiped a few extra drops of sweat from his brow, "That should keep you safe, comrade. Now I just hope Naruto's fine."

"He is." Replied a voice behind the sergeant.

Emil gaped, there, leaning on the damaged chopper, Connor looked at the factory where Naruto was coming from. The black haired boy had a stoic look on his face, his arms were crossed, and he had a strange red badge in his hands shaped like the symbol on his shirt.

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap! Sorry if the fight with Cyborg wasn't that good, I think I'm better with mano-a-mano/sword/giant monsters/giant robots fights than guys with lots of firepower. But hope you enjoyed it as well as the fight between Emil and Speedy/Red Arrow/Arsenal/Roy Harper… Gesh, guy should choose a name already.**

**Next chapter is Naruto vs. Connor, the rematch! And if you get what that badge is, then yes, Connor will not hold back.**

**Swordslinger out!**


	8. Chapter 8

I OWN NOTHING, thus why I can make a better job at story-making than Kishimoto… Nah, everyone can with the exception of Stephanie Meyers.

**XXXXXX**

Destined Battle

Emil had his trusty Saiga shotgun aimed at the super-strong teen, with a shaky grip on the automatic shotgun. Connor paid him no mind, he simply leaned on the helicopter, watching as Naruto ran over to it. However, the shaking of the gun aimed at his head and the clatter of the rounds inside it made Superboy's patience thinner. He put the badge in his pants pocket before turning to the sergeant, who almost jumped back as he tightened his grip on his weapon like his life depended on it, and spoke up, "You do know that little gun can't even make a scratch on me, right?"

"I'd rather hold to a little hope, comrade." The Russian man said, taking a brief second to look for Naruto, and then turned his attention on the black haired boy, "And I'd rather be wary of you after what your partners tried to do to Naruto. So if I can at least do any harm to you, no matter if it's a fucking scratch, at least I'll be happy." He said with determination, as he had finally steeled his nerves.

Connor looked at the man with a strange, familiar sensation. It was strange talking to others, and yet the only one who he felt somewhat comfortable had been this blond man and Naruto. Two people who would fight him head-on for something they believed in or someone they wanted to protect. They fought, and each beat a Titan, well, Naruto beat seven Titans including Connor himself. Each soldier of fortune had a reason to fight for, thus why they were very stubborn to die. This started to nag Connor's mind, even more after the little game of Uno he had with the whiskered merc.

And speak of the devil; Naruto finally arrived just as the firemen started to put down the fire on Wayne's drug factory. His first reaction, however was very unexpected, "Hi Connor." He said with a wave before calmly making his way to the chopper to check out the first aid kits, until his brain kicked in and he turned to look at the Titan, "Wait, what are you doing here?!" he then realized the stupidity of his own question, face-palming, "Oh right, the fight… Damn, the fumes have really gotten to me."

"I've actually been meaning to talk to you." Superboy replied as Naruto walked towards the crash site. "I am here to fight, but only to see what is it that makes you fight." He said, looking intently at the blond, "You are the first idiot I have found to both annoy me and make me want to fight you for something other than orders, something different than anger." Connor looked at the blond intently, examining him. "You're not like any of the other idiots I've fought so far, including Batman. All they're about is having money, having power, having something they could get in less complicated ways."

Naruto stood his ground, tensing his body slightly as he asked, "But what about you?"

"What about me…? Heh…" Superboy had a cynical smile on his face, "Truth be told, I just don't have a real reason to fight, never had. I was made to be a weapon, that's all I ever heard… And that's why I went mad at him… Lex Luthor…"

Emil widened his eyes, "The CEO making anti-super-human defense technology? The same Lex Luthor who made the collars that cancel the power of criminals who abuse their abilities? The guy who is practically a hero to humanity by making it possible to at least fight back against the Justice League? That Lex Luthor?"

Connor chuckled bitterly, "He said I was the Superboy, but if I wanted to I could have any name I wanted. He then told me what I was made of, and who I was…" he clenched his hand into a fist, "He told me nothing but lies… All he said were fallacies, he didn't make me to have a life to live by myself, he made me to be who he wanted me to be." His mood started to get worse as he wanted to slam something, "A hero, nothing but guardian dog to the people, that's what he said I was. But thanks to him I'm nothing but a freak… Like you." He turned to look at Naruto, whose face was actually stoic.

The blond remained silent, gathering his thoughts, before speaking up, "So, why is it that you want to fight me?"

Connor's face remained stoic, "You and I are cut from the same cloth… You're only different because you at least want to fight for what others tell you to."

Naruto instantly got mad, "That's where you're wrong." He said in a cold tone with a matching stoic face, stepping closer to the black haired teen, "I chose to fight to protect Pamela. And at least I chose how to fight my enemies. If there's something you and I have in common, is that we both are only good at fighting… But I at least choose what I'm fighting for." He hooked a thumb to his bandana, "This bandana and the metal plate of my hat were part of an old headband, a forehead protector given to those who could fight in my village. I wore it proudly, thinking I could be the best… But then I really messed up." He tapped the bandana, "I wear this as a reminder that if I don't fight seriously, if I don't give it my all, I'll lose more than a fight."

Superboy and Naruto stared at each other intently. The blond was surprised when he was tossed something by Connor, a small map, "That map holds your client's location, and an access code to enter the place." He said simply, arms crossed, "If you want her to live then you better hurry and get to Arkham City." He said, turning his head away from the blond, "If you're gonna fight for her, then I want to fight you at your very best."

Naruto, rather than be shocked, grinned widely, patted Connor on the shoulder and chuckled, "Thanks a lot! I owe you one!"

"Wait, you can't trust the enemy!" Emil said with all the reason in the world.

Naruto waved dismissively, "Nah, I trust his word. Besides, I also want to have a fair fight." he said with a bright smile before entering the chopper and getting changed. He came out wearing the same outfit he had when meeting Pamela, black opened military jacket, military cap with his headband's metal plate, and his boots were the same old black ones. Naruto had taken off what remained of his armor, but tied his bandana firmly around his right biceps. He still had the wakizashi holstered on his right thigh, but he had taken off his katana with its sheath and belt from his orange muscle shirt, laying them inside the chopper.

"You're not using your armor or even going to use your sword?" the black haired Titan asked a bit confused.

Naruto grinned as he slammed his fists together, "I want to fight you as an equal, and it wouldn't be much of a fight if it weren't fair." He took out a pair of black, fingerless gloves from his pants pockets, said gloves had a metal plate covering the knuckles, "But, even if I fight you on fair grounds, I won't pull back my punches."

Connor looked at his opponent, trying to figure him out, '_Just a fair fight, as if he were a friend of mine… He's very, very bizarre…_' He then looked at the metal plate and the large gash on it, "What was that mistake you made?"

Naruto turned to face his opponent with a calm look on his face, a sigh escaped his lips, "Holding back against someone who wanted nothing but to kill for an useless revenge." He turned to the Superboy, a hand on one shoulder to crack a few bones back into place, "His main goal was nothing but killing everyone in my village to get some payback, even those who had nothing to do with it. In the end, I realized I had to kill him."

Connor said nothing, he simply pushed himself off the chopper before walking towards the blond. Both opponents circled around each other, rising their fists into a battle stance, Superboy into a standard boxing aggressive position, and Naruto into his calm, but balanced stance. Connor spoke up, "You sure you don't want to rest? The next two fights you will have are far tougher than me because they don't use brute force, but something else entirely."

Naruto chuckled with a laidback smile as he cracked his knuckles by tightening the grip on his fists, "I've faced stuff like that enough times for a lifetime. Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't be able to wait."

"Then why aren't you going all out?" Connor asked, feeling a bit irritated that Naruto wasn't taking seriously, or so he thought.

"You and Beastboy are the only Titans I feel like respecting…" Naruto said as he and his opponent stepped closer to each other, "It wouldn't feel right if I wasn't fighting you in fair terms." He grinned in that annoying, cocky way of his, "But if you really want me to go all out, you should give it your all."

Connor chuckled, "That's what I was waiting for all night long… Let's go, Naruto!"

Both opponents yelled as they charged at each other with a fist back, ready for action. Time seemed to stop as both stomped a foot forward when being face to face with each other, throwing a hook at each other's face simultaneously. Time kicked in, as Naruto stood crouched with his fist extended forward and Connor stumbled forwards, feeling very dizzy. The black haired boy shook his head, standing up and getting into his fighting stance, "Not pulling any punches, right?" He said while Naruto adjusted his cap.

"Yeah, I want to beat you fair and square with all I have. That's the way I've always fought and there's no way I'm changing it." The blond said as both turned to face each other, back into their fighting stances.

The two jumped back into action. Naruto watched Connor's movements, and when he punched the blond ducked under the swing, a fist down. The Titan stumbled back when the powerful upper-cut landed firmly on his chin after Naruto used the power of his legs to add more power by jumping up. Naruto kept his ground, putting a hand on his hat and watching what would his opponent do next, knowing Connor was more on the offensive. The blond almost seemed to dance as he avoided every single one of Connor's blows, sidestepping or even spinning on his heels to move around every single blow. Superboy on the other hand was met with Slade's first lesson when training Naruto, defense and counters. Since Naruto was already prone to the offensive, what Slade prioritized was the defense and the ability to use the blond boy's strength on it for pain.

Connor was starting to feel his good grasp on his temper slip, and Naruto used that to jump back and adjust his cap as if nothing were happening. Connor fell for it, he charged right at the blond with a fist up, Naruto countered by ducking under the swing. Superboy grinned as he crossed his arms over his chest to stop the upper-cut, only to see as Naruto spun on the ground. The Titan felt how his legs were kicked off the ground, making him fall, but Naruto didn't even let him touch the ground as he kept on spinning, but moving forward, and jumped up with a roundhouse kick to Connor's back, sending him flying away as he landed harmoniously on his feet.

"Damn it…" Connor groaned as he got up. Naruto moved too damn much, he needed a way to have a bigger range of attack. As he got up, he found what he needed, the crashed helicopter. Naruto watched wide-eyed as Connor singlehandedly lifted the chopper, all the way up with just a single arm and no sign of strain.

The blond let out a "Whoa!" as he watched the chopper come at him as Superboy swung it around, throwing the damaged flying machine at him. Naruto reacted as best as he could and jumped over it, rolling over the metallic exterior to get a better landing. The helicopter was sent flying all the way inside the factory, crashing through some of the containers and pipes. Naruto thanked his lucky starts for having avoided the hit, and found Superboy charging at him going for a wild grab. Naruto countered by rising his hands and grabbing Superboy's, trying to push him back. Connor, being taller, heavier and physically stronger, was able to push Naruto back a few feet. The blond was forced to put a lot of chakra on his feet to stop himself from being pushed further as he also struggled to match Connor's strength.

The two raised their hands to try to bring the other down, but seeing as that wasn't happening, they head-butted each other, which threw Naruto's hat off his head. The two kept on pressing their foreheads against each other, as if to try to push the other back like that. Connor chuckled, "We're pretty evened when fighting."

Naruto grinned, "But I'm the better fighter."

"I'm stronger."

"I'm resourceful."

"I'm smarter."

Naruto chuckled, before stepping forwards and moving his center of gravity around to throw Superboy off balance and send him flying back to the floor, "You're far too impulsive, all you know about fighting is only to charge at someone with the intention to flatten them with no form, your moves are an open book… and I've got the better looks." He said as he drew his wakizashi and smiled at his own reflection, pulling back his hair. "Problem is these looks of mine seem to attract dangerous, homicidal but beautiful women… I think it runs on the family." He added as an afterthought with a small sigh while still keeping a laidback smile.

Naruto then walked to his hat, dusting it off while waiting for Superboy's angry charge. Since the nonchalant attitude served to anger Connor and get him to slip, lower his guard in his furious swings and allow Naruto to show off, the blond certainly didn't expect him to retort, "You're right about one thing…" the Titans started as he got up while Naruto held his cap protectively on his head.

The blond raised a brow and replied in the most eloquent way he could muster, "Huh?"

Connor stood up, pulling out the red patch from his pockets and showing it to Naruto, "With this, I won't need skill to defeat you." He said with a grin, "You better keep your word about going all out, because I will use more power than you could ever imagine."

Naruto didn't like the sound of that. He needed to save Pam, and he knew already that if an enemy gloated about having much more power to unleash, it'd put him in an unfair fight. He drew out his wakizashi and threw it forward at the Titan, like a throwing knife. Connor watched as Naruto charged at him, both arms pulled back. The black haired boy wouldn't let Naruto have the upper hand, he punched the wakizashi back at Naruto, deflecting it in a way that the blade would have killed the blond had Naruto not proven himself true of being resourceful by grabbing the short sword in his teeth, biting on the blade and keeping the wakizashi clenched in between his lips.

Connor dead-panned, "No way he's human." He said as Naruto used his Hiraishin to warp above his opponent, his right leg lifted into the sky, his foot above his head, and the sword still clenched in his teeth like he was in a Jet Li movie. Connor lifted his arms up to block the axe-kick to his head, but watched in amazement as Naruto twisted his body midair to move himself upside down and deliver a powerful kick to Superboy's side. The Titans stumbled in pain as the kick was charged with a lot of chakra. Naruto didn't stop there, he managed to do a one-handed stand and spin his body to sweep Connor off his feet with a sweeping kick. And that was when Connor watched as Naruto formed a strange, blue ethereal orb of energy in one palm.

"Game over!" Naruto shouted perfectly despite the sword in his mouth as he slammed the Rasengan on Superboy's chest, sending him flying back with the powerful explosion of spiraling chakra. He watched in relief as the patch started to fall down, which prompted him to grab the wakizashi from his lips and slice it cleanly in half. He sighed in relief, watching the Titan laying on the ground, "Well, glad that's the end of it."

"N-No…" Connor struggled to say as he got back to his feet, blood dripping from his lips and down his chin while his shirt had been tore open. He cackled as he had a hand on his chest, when he removed it, there was another red patch on his bare chest, "It hasn't even begun!" he shouted as he ripped off his shirt and stomped on the ground with new power, causing it to shake.

"What the Hell are you doing?!" Naruto asked as he tried to reason what was up with the patch, only to watch as the Titan literally flew at him far too fast for him to react. Fortunately, Naruto's brain kicked him in the ass and told him to at least try to parry the attack. The blond merc's heels complained when he was dragged through the floor in a futile attempt to stop the flying boy of steel, which made his hat fly off his head for the second time that night as the concrete floor was crushed from the force like a meteorite had crashed.

Superboy finally stopped, which allowed the momentum and the speed to send the blond flying back into the factory. Naruto felt the heat of the fire that the firemen were still working on putting out nearing. With a swift flip he managed to land on his feet against one of the pipes and jump from it to a higher position by bouncing from pipe to pipe. And that's when he found out jumping didn't beat flying when Superboy sped after him like a speeding bullet. Not only that, he was way faster than before, the soldier of fortune had to for his every sense and all his speed to parry and block blow after blow. Be it either a kick or a punch, they all hurt, so Connor had not only gotten the power of flight, better speed and a bigger urge to beat the blond to a bloody pulp, he had gotten a lot stronger too.

However, Naruto wasn't able to fly, so he was easily losing altitude, which Connor used to his advantage by grabbing the blond by one ankle and repeating what he did in the museum's entrance, swing the merc around as if he were a rag doll. He threw Naruto back into the factory, where several firemen gaped when the blond managed to maneuver and land on his feet, but making two small craters from his landing. But the least of his worries were his feet when he watched Superboy flying high in the sky with the heavily damaged helicopter in his hands. Connor took a note from Dio Brando's book and flew down with the chopper in his hands being repurposed as a hammer to squash the blond like a bug.

But the blond knew that if he moved away the firemen could get hurt, so he got a risky idea. He jumped up, right into the chopper with his wakizashi in hand. Superboy heard metal slicing metal, and watched as not one, but six Naruto's jumped out of the chopper in a cloud of smoke, each of them having retrieved their katana. "Everyone after him!" one of the Naruto's shouted as each of the blond boys jumped around the factory's walls, pipes and large containers around the flying teen as the firemen made their way out.

Connor closed his eyes and focused, he instantly heard one of the blond mercs coming after him from behind. He backhanded the Naruto, showing it to be to a clone after delivering a punch powerful enough to have his head flying off. Then came in another one with his katana ready to cut off his head, Connor grinned as he caught the blade in his hand before punching the Naruto's head off, making him disappear in another cloud of smoke. He watched as the others charged after him from all sides, making him grin. He took a deep breath before spinning around, blowing air from his lungs with so much power that not only did the entire fire was put off, but some of the blond boys started to freeze in thick layers of ice before disappearing in more clouds of smoke until just on remained, with his back on the floor.

Connor grinned as his eyes glowed red, "Do you give?" he said as he flew down to the blond, extending a hand to him, "You may be powerful, but you have to understand I have much more power than you could even imagine."

Naruto groaned, "Bullshit… All that power came from that stupid patch."

Superboy chuckled, "That's because it allows me to use my full Kryptonian blood… Something that Batman made for me to fight better, sadly, it doesn't help me to be in control." He said as he tapped his forehead, "When using these patches I just start to lose it, to become more and more violent, victory is all I want. So, I ask you, do you give up?"

Naruto chuckled bitterly as he got up, holding his right arm which was bleeding, "Sorry, I'm just a sore loser." He chuckled again, but in a more lighthearted manner, "But, I gotta admit… It's a pity I got to fight you… You remind me of an old friend."

"Then simply give up." Connor said again, extending his hand, "You can't defeat Batman, the bastard has more tricks than any of the guys running the Justice League, and those people are far stronger than I am. But, if you were to join us, to work for us, you could-"

"Will you give it up already?" Naruto said in an irritated tone, "By now you should give up on trying to get me to give up."

Connor growled, "Then, this is the end." He said simply, before his eyes shot a powerful beam of red light that was actually concentrated heat coming from his eyes. It worked as a laser, shooting right through Naruto's right shoulder to incapacitate him, and then Superboy fired more to keep the blond from moving right into his other shoulder, his knees and two extra ones on the legs for good measure. Connor sighed as he looked at the blond merc's weakened form before him, "It is a shame… I was even thinking you could give me a challenge."

To his utter shock, the Naruto before him grinned, "Sorry, that's the work of the boss." And with a cloud of smoke, he disappeared.

Connor widened his eyes as he turned around, trying to find where the real Naruto had gone off to, "Looking for me?" his voice asked, and Naruto stood on the heliport, looking down from one edge at Superboy with a large, cocky grin on his face, "Sorry about that." He said with a wave, "Had to gather some energy, rest a while, and see what is it that patch makes you do."

Connor grinned, "Clever little son of a bitch." He shouted as he flew up, staring down at Naruto with his arms crossed from seven feet above the scorched heliport's floor. "You may have seen some of my tricks, but for the Batman, the show's still going. Even if you could pull a trick to defeat me, there are two opponents stronger than me waiting for you, not to mention Batman himself."

Naruto simply smiled as he took his bandana off his arm and tied it around his bare forehead, "I told you already, I'm a sore loser." He said, tying his katana to his left hip. "So I won't give up, even if I must crawl out of my grave to beat every single one of you. Besides…" Naruto started as he drew out his katana and wakizashi, holding them in a two-handed stance with the wakizashi in front for defense and the katana at his side for the offense, "I said I would go all out if you did so too."

Connor grinned as he flew down, "Very well then…" he started as he cracked his knuckles, all the while his eyes glowed a hotter red, "This is what I've been waiting for all night, to fight you at your best with all I've got. We don't need some stupid order from the Batman or your boss or clients; I just want to beat that annoying smile off your face."

Naruto chuckled, "Same here." He surprised his opponent by letting loose the power in him. "You guys are just giving me excuses to cut loose. So let me show you how much of a freak I am." Superboy watched as ethereal golden energy surrounded the blond in whirls of energy as Naruto's features became more animalistic and feral, his teeth grew sharper, his fangs got longer, his whisker-birthmarks were thicker, and even his eyes were more vulpine. The golden chakra started to emanate more and more from Naruto, covering his body and acting as if it were flames that gently danced around him without causing any harm.

Both opponents charged at each other with a loud cry of, "Let's go!"

(Play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance OST – I'm My Own Master Now)

The two clashed once again, Naruto was expecting Connor to be more resistant to pain, but the fact his swords were barely harming the Kryptonian who held their blades with his bare hands was a shocker. Superboy was equally shocked as he felt how the edge of the blades started to dig in his skin. Not only that, the boy of steel could tell now that whatever energy Naruto used it was similar to magic, and immunity to magic was not in a Kryptonian's list of abilities. Naruto felt the ground being crushed under his feet from the pressure as he and Connor tried to push the other away. Using his and Kurama's chakra as one allowed him to match his opponent, but it seemed that the Titan was just as stubborn as him, as he also started to use more and more power. The blond soldier of fortune did the same, he unleashed more and more of his chakra into his body, absorbing the energy around him, and focusing on his enemy's movements.

"You just love to pull trick after trick, don't you?" Connor grunted.

"If you're not playing dirty, you're not even trying." Naruto said before managing to find a better footing. He took a step forward, letting his body's gravity center move around and drag Superboy around, before kneeing him in the gut. Naruto was not only able to do harm with his chakra passing by Connor's defenses, but his strength had been increased greatly, and he had been able to do some serious harm to the now gasping Titan. Connor groaned before mimicking the blond and delivering his own knee to the vulpine merc's side. Even with the chakra cloak, the hit hurt, this guy could easily crush a boulder by flicking at it if he wanted. But our hero is known for one thing, and that's being too stupidly stubborn to give up. He flipped backwards and delivered both feet into Superboy's solar plexus, sending him flying back and freeing his swords.

Naruto landed harmoniously while Connor flew around him at incredible speeds, circling him like some lost object in a tornado. In a split second, Connor flew at Naruto with a speed that matched Kid Flash's. The blond let out another "Whoa!" as he jumped out of the way of something flying faster than a speeding bullet and capable of hitting harder than a speeding bullet train. Superboy then started to zip around, trying to hit Naruto one way or another as the blond tried to read his moves and patterns. That's when another risky idea crossed Naruto's mind when remembering who this fight reminded him of. The gun for hire kneeled on the ground, his katana sheathed at his side, held by its sheath with his left hand while the right hand was on its handle. Just as Connor thought he could hit the blond, he was shocked when the blond disappeared in a flash of yellow light. That's when a sharp pain and the blond appeared by his side, the blond dashing forward with his katana drawn out.

"What the… Ugh…" the Kryptonian groaned as he stumbled forward, grabbing his side… He was cut… He was cut! He could feel his own blood dripping from his side. And that was when the patch's secondary effects kicked in. He felt angry, very, very angry. "You… You… Aaahhh…. RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHH!"

Naruto felt the anger rise in his opponent, and was forced to jump out of the way when Connor roared up into the skies like some demonic beast. The shockwave of the scream alone was enough to give the blond a slight headache. Connor flew up into the sky before diving to the heliport, crashing down through the floor and doing the job the zeppelin didn't, he took down the entire building. The blond, now more aware of the lay-out of the factory, jumped out of the heliport and into a large staircase, then back to the ground.

"_What the Hell did you do?!_" Emil's voice asked from inside Naruto's jacket. The blond pulled out a walkie-talkie as he watched Superboy flying from the rubble of the building, carrying a huge pile of debris in his arms half the size of the entire thing.

Naruto replied, nonetheless, "The best thing I do to people: annoying the piss out of them." He put the walkie-talkie back in his jacket and got ready for the incoming attack.

Superboy threw the entire pile of concrete and steel down to the mercenary. Naruto held his katana in a two-handed stance with the blade skywards. He closed his eyes, focusing his chakra on the blade, before swinging the blade down. Anyone who watched half the heliport falling down gaped even more when watching as it was cut in half by an ethereal blade of golden energy. And behind the debris was Superboy charging with his eyes glowing like hot red steel. Superboy fired another beam of concentrated heat at the blond, barely giving him time to react.

However, he watched as Naruto disappeared and then reappeared right in front of him to upper-cut him in the chin. The force was more than enough to not only stop Superboy dead in his tracks but send him back to the ground. The Titan felt his anger rise once again as he got up and ran to the blond with a punch. Naruto let out a roar of primal, feral energy as he charged with his katana held in one hand. When Superboy punched at him the blond brought his sword up, making Connor step back and watch his right hand's knuckles bleeding. The Kryptonian roared again as he used his left hand, only to get the similar results and a charging blond. Naruto jumped up and delivered his right foot to deliver a solid, straight kick to Connor's chin to get him to stand up-straight and allow him to grab both his wakizashi and katana in his dual stance.

"We're done here!" Naruto shouted as he crouched, both swords held at his right side, their tips on the ground, and the blond charging the rest of his golden chakra into them. In a split second, he jumped up, leaving dual horizontal wounds on Connor's chest that went from his right hip to his left shoulder. But Naruto had done what he wanted from the beginning, he had sliced the damn patch off Connor, who now laid on the ground, on his back, and sporting two wounds that would surely leave him a scar.

Connor gasped, as he finally recovered his sanity. He groaned when feeling the soreness in his entire body for using such power, and grunted when the sword wounds made it all even worse. He raised his head to look at Naruto holding his katana at his neck, smiling. He groaned again, "I hate it when you smile."

"Hey, you gave a good fight… You should be proud." The blond said with a chuckle, "So, do you give?"

Connor, in a show of sportsmanship, chuckled, "Yeah… You win, for now…"

"Good." Naruto said as he helped Connor up, putting one arm over his shoulder to help him stand, "Let's get you patched up."

Connor chuckled bitterly, "You know I'll be thrown to jail, right?"

"Do you want me to visit? We could play Black Jack."

"…You're a either an annoying idiot, or a complete doofus."

"Thanks!"

"Your optimism is also annoying."

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap!**

**Well, Connor is the first anti-hero here, and I hope I did a good job with him. Kishimoto could learn from this what a good anti-hero is like, that's for certain. And a little piece of trivia, I planned to go for the song "It Has To Be This Way" for the fight scene, but when remembering "I'm My Own Master Now" and its lyrics, well, you can guess which won me over. And I defy any of you to not feel pure pleasure with any of those songs, you can't, because you wouldn't have a soul.**

**Swordslinger out!**


	9. Chapter 9

I OWN NOTHING, if I did comic books would have heroes with suits that looked more for fighting than for being fashionable.

**XXXXXX**

An end

Entitled to saying a lot with the right to have freedom of speech and thought, one Garfield Logan, AKA Beastboy, looked up from his cell in Gotham's highest security prison as more of his teammates arrived. He and Wally West, AKA Kid Flash, were busy playing cards while wearing the typical orange jumpsuit from prisons as well as the not so typical collar to cancel meta-human powers. First he was surprised to see Wally in the jumpsuit but brushed it off when remembering what that fox-like bastard did to him. But when Starfire walked in with a delighted smile and bruises he began to worry, and now seeing Superboy and Red Arrow walking in with some visible bandages, he truly needed to say this:

"The guy's too idiotic to stay down, isn't he?" the green changeling said as he put his cards down. "And where's Cyborg?"

"Who knows?" Superboy replied as he calmly walked into a cell. "Naruto didn't hold back on him, and there was no trace I could find of him in our fight. So either Cyborg has been retrieved by Batman, or he's dead."

"With Cyborg's rants about weapons and wars it wouldn't surprise me if the Tin Man said something to anger the damn Fox." Wally said as he walked up to the bars of his cell, looking as all around him a small army of guards with assault rifles surrounded their cells inside a fortress that'd made Fort Knox seem like a kid's lemonade stand in terms of security. He rested his head on the bars and asked, "So, how did he beat you, Supey?"

"In a fair fight." Connor replied, "I went all out, I even used the Patches but Naruto had several tricks under his sleeves. If it weren't for that I would have beaten him."

"Are you doing the kidding?" Starfire asked as she walked to the bars of her lonely self – they may be put in the same place, but there wouldn't be mixed rooms, "I was the one who had him on the last of his breath."

Roy Harper, also known by his three names as Speedy, Red Arrow and Arsenal, snorted, "You must be the one joking, Star. If it weren't for the extra help he had, I would have sniped his head clean off his shoulders."

Connor snickered, "You got beat by a middle-aged man, not Naruto, so it doesn't count."

"Shut up! I would still have sneaked behind him and put an arrow between his eyes!"

Garfield chuckled, "Guys, guys… Your stories are good… But it was me who almost ate him in one go. There's no competition for that."

Wally laughed, "Please, he tossed you around like a rag-doll, BB."

Roy let out a small laugh, "And he made you piss your pants and faint."

"Dude!" the ginger said with an undignified voice and a reddened face.

Connor smirked, "Well, I almost crushed him with a helicopter, twice, and then I threw an entire building at him."

Starfire let out a giggle, "Oh, but mine was truly fun… The way he'd pull each trick out of nowhere to best me in the beat of battle…" she let out a rather dreamy sigh, "I just hope to fight him again, hand-to-hand combat for our next encounter… and enjoy the pain he could give me, as well as getting more of that blood of his, even if just another lick at it."

"I'm not the only one finding that confusing, disturbing and arousing, am I?" Garfield asked with a raised brow, the rest of his teammates nodded.

Wally continued, "Still… It was fun fighting him while it lasted, even if Kaldur interrupted my fight… It felt so great to see him show his true colors… And that damned confident attitude of his made me wanting to beat his teeth out more exciting as well as getting rid of that annoying winning smile of his." He had a strange smile on his face, a rather hype one. "If I had the chance to have seen behind that stupid bluff then I could've still fought him some more and rip his smug idiotic face to shreds!"

Roy nodded, understanding the feeling, "If it weren't for that damned Russian man I would have challenged him to a battle of wits like in the rooftops. He wouldn't have known where I was as I tried to make him fall as a pincushion." He also had a large grin.

Garfield sighed, "Maybe if I had turned into more agile animals I could've given more of a fight. Like turning into a python and slowly strangle him or… or morphing into a giant tiger to keep him on his toes before I bit his neck off!" he also shared that eager grin the others have.

Connor chuckled, "If the Patch didn't make me lose control I would have used my fists more, see what he could do with that strange honor of his when I punched at mach two."

The prisoners sighed in delight at their own thoughts, before Garfield spoke up, "We still hate him, don't we?"

"Yeah."

"Absolutely."

"You got it."

"Hehehe, maybe…"

The guards raised a brow, but were glad they weren't the person these guys were targeting.

XXXXXX

Naruto felt a shiver running down his spine as he jumped from roof to roof to where the map told him Pam was. It had been a long, tiresome and exhausting night and he just hoped to get the redhead to safety, get some good food, and then sleep for a millennium. But to get to that he needed to rescue the green-skinned environmentalist. He had retrieved his cap with the metallic plate, after dusting it a bit. His bandana was back inside the military hat while he had his katana firmly tied to his left hip. He held the sword to his side, ready for any random encounter with any Titan that could pop out to get him…

"I just hope it's not another girl." He said a bit tired, "With my luck with women, they're sure to have issues, hate my guts just for who I am and how I act, or they'll try to turn me into a pet."

Anko Mitsarashi as well as other kunoichis who had been after Naruto's buns for sadomasochistic reasons, Wanda Wilson, Starfire, and even Megan sneezed in unison.

And, speaking of the green-skinned alien: "Being a pet would fit you, Fishcake."

Naruto had landed on the roof of an abandoned building, several windows closed with planks and the doors sealed shut. All around the neighborhood every single building was abandoned, and before him stood a place as big as it was terrifying. Arkham City was, to put it simply, a massive island which could only be accessed by a bridge. Made by Wayne Industries in the early days when Gotham started to rise as a new residential zone, it was now a sadistic show's play zone. Batman always had his fun with anyone who got in there and wasn't on his side. The Titans were the vice-presidents of the whole place, and their rule was law.

The bridge was guarded by Megan who stood floating in the sky before the blond as if to block his way in. The bridge's gates were sealed shut so no soul got in, and they were thick enough to resist bombing without even a dent in order to make sure nobody interrupted the games. However, to get in, one would have to climb over their eighty foot of height, climb down to whatever Batman had planned and then cross the two mile long bridge to face whatever challenge the bat had planned.

But Naruto just waved at the redhead, "You know, you guys should really pick a nickname for me." He said indifferently for once, "I mean, Kid Flash named me Bloody Fox which, while kinda cool, needs more of a punch. Cyborg called me Mister Maelstrom which I gotta say is rather weak. But you aren't even trying."

Megan felt a vein pulsing in her forehead, "Shut it! You think this is a game?!" she paused, before slapping her forehead, "Don't answer that."

"Hey, your boss is the one taking this as a game." Naruto said as he sat on the edge of the building's roof and patted at his side for the Martian to sit. "What's his deal? I mean, he makes you guys do all the work, puts you in danger and now… well, guard this dump? You better tell me the pay's good."

"That's the worst part." Megan said as she took the offer and sat besides Naruto, resting one cheek in her fist, "We're not even paid, we're just forced to do this. We are allowed food, a room and stuff, but it's all to keep us following his orders. I don't even need to be a psychic to know that Batman's just an asshole."

"He's a Bat-hole." Naruto said, making Megan give him a dead-pan. "As in Bat, like replacing Butt… Ugh, actually, don't mind, I will stick with naming him that but… Yeah, I need some better material."

"Actually, it kinda fits, guy's obsessed with bats. I'm surprised he doesn't swim in guano at his cave." She sighed, "At least I can do what I want when off-duty, and the team do enjoy when I cook."

"You can cook?"

"Is that a problem?"

"No, no! Just… Never thought you'd be the cooking type… More like the reading type, even karaoke singing type… Might be the freckles, oh, and they're cute." Naruto said with a smile.

Megan felt her cheeks heating up, "Where did that come from?!" she asked, out-raged while her freckles were now hidden in the red of her cheeks.

"Sorry! Kinda slipped… You're still cute, even when angry." Naruto said with a sheepish smile.

Megan felt her cheeks heating more and more, "Well, I bake cookies most of the time…" she said, looking away from him, "Not that you'd appreciate them."

"Well, I kinda have a killer sweet tooth, so I'd be delighted to try them." Naruto said with a smile, trying hard to keep himself from laughing, '_Man, what a tsundere!_'

Megan read that thought, '_What's a Tsundere? Is it some Japanese food he'd like to try if I make him cookies? Wait…_' and then it kicked in, "Wait a minute, why am I talking to you?!"

Naruto smirked, "Because you have issues against your boss, who is an asshole. And he surely doesn't appreciate what you do for him."

Megan nodded with another sigh, "Agreed… Wait, stop making me change subjects!" she lifted her head to glare at the blond before flying up. "I came here to make sure you lose all hope, so get ready."

Naruto stood up with a jump and his right hand ready to draw out his katana, starting to get serious, "Listen, I actually don't want to fight you, especially after that cliché line of yours, ok? You do seem like you dislike Bat-hole's ideals, so please, tell me, why is it that you follow his orders?"

"What's with you?" Megan almost snapped, "Why are you so intent with getting in my head?!"

"Simple, I'm not the kind that enjoys killing others, and I don't want to kill everyone I meet." Naruto replied, making Megan feel even angrier.

"Stop lying!" she finally snapped, and from the ground several dumpsters flew up around her along abandoned cars and AC machines, "I can read your every thought, you killed before! You even killed Cyborg!"

"I know." Naruto said as he tried to find an opening, finally getting serious, "But do you even know what it's like to kill someone?"

Megan couldn't really reply to that, so she lifted her arms and all the objects she had in her control flew up before she sent them down to try to squash Naruto like a bug. The blond decided that it was best to disappear, seeing as Megan wouldn't loosen her lovely lips anymore. A quick Hiraishin later and he was at the top of the gates, ready to jump down, until something wrapped itself around his waist. He looked down to see, in utter shock, that it was Megan's arm! It had stretched itself like it was rubber, even the cloth of her weird black stealth suit didn't seem to have problems when her arm was coiled around Naruto before yanking him back and slamming him into the roof. Pain invaded Naruto's back and every fiber of his spine due to the impact, while the stretchy arm around his waist tightened its grip on him, making him start to lose his breath and focus.

"H-How…?" was all he could gasp as a question while Megan smirked.

"We Martians are expert shape-shifters, and not like Beastboy or you, we don't have limits when compared to you two." She said, actually enjoying her hold on the blond. It felt so empowering, so satisfying to have him at her mercy, for her to do ANYTHING she wanted to him… Oh dear, was Starfire rubbing off on her?

However, one weird thought crossed Naruto's mind when he heard her explanation, and really, could a man blame him, '_So, does that mean she can make her boobs bigger?_'

"WHAT?!" Megan asked now completely embarrassed, covering her chest with both arms, unintentionally letting go of the now gasping blond, "Y-You pervert! How dare you think something so… so… Ugh!"

"Wait, you can read my thoughts?" Naruto asked, before trying it out, '_If you do, you could make your butt plumper._'

"Shut up!" Megan cried as she stretched one arm to try to punch the blond in the face. Naruto smirked as he side-stepped the blow and grabbed the stretched wrist to pull Megan with a swift yank. However, just as he was about to put his knee in the girl's gut, she raised her own knee to protect herself. "Yes, I can read your mind, and what made you think I wouldn't see this coming?" she asked, before wrapping her other arm around him and continue her previous tactic of suffocating the blond in a bear-hug.

Naruto let out a pained gasp when one of his ribs felt as if it's pop out of place. Megan currently held him in her arms, pressing her body against his while tightening the grip of her arms to get all the air out of him. He had to admit, even when angry she was really, really cute even this close… And it seemed Megan read that thought too, for her cheeks turned a glowing crimson. That's when her grip loosened again, it seemed making her embarrassed was a sure way to victory! So…

"What do you think you're do-" and Megan was cut short when Naruto forcefully slammed his lips on hers, stealing her first kiss.

Naruto suddenly had a multitude of thoughts go through his mind, but the main one was, '_Well, better enjoy this_.'

During that same time, Megan was thinking only a few thoughts, '_My heart is beating so fast, his lips are so warm, this feels right… Wait, why do I want it to end? No, I want it to end! Wait…do I? And how did I get here…?_' Then at that moment she was thrust backwards, Naruto just head-butted her, sending the Martian to the floor, she landed and looked up in time to see Naruto looking pretty much like he was frightened out of his mind, and he had a reason to be:

"I. AM. GOING. TO. KILL. YOU. FISHCAKE!" Megan roared as the building both were in started to tremble from the powerful waves of psychic power that her rage emanated all around her.

Naruto had only one thing to say when finally unsheathing his katana with a grin, "Worth it!"

Megan snapped even more, "Humans serve only to kill each other for stupid ideals, what makes you think you're so special?!"

(Play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance OST - Collective Consciousness)

Naruto watched as Megan unleashed more and more of her psychic prowess through her anger, behind her on the bridge the water started to rise up into the sky along with everything in a ninety yards radius around the girl. The blond started to feel himself being pulled up, nothing that some chakra on his feet didn't solve to glue him to the ground. He looked a Megan, her hands had morphed into large, sharp and deadly claws that were as large as a human torso while her arms were covered in an armor similar to bone. Her hair flew in the wind created by the power she kept on unleashing with the single thought to kill the blond before her.

And, he just had one line, "Come on, I'm not that bad a kisser, am I?"

Bad choice, Naruto was instantly forced to side-step two torrents of water shot at him like an anti-riot hose. The next second he was forced to jump above an empty van, using its roof for a second jump, and block a claw swipe from one of Megan's clawed arms. He made a quick change of hands to get his wakizashi out and block the other arm. And just as he thought he could try to counter her, Megan grew more arms, several around her torso like she was an Asura, and even one from one side of her head. Getting punched five times simultaneously wasn't as painful as Naruto remembered, probably because the girl wasn't even human to begin with.

"You choose." Megan said slowly in a threatening manner as her extra limbs receded and she held up her right clawed arm, morphing it into a blade while moving her left claw's fingers. "Beheading, or disemboweling."

"I can see bad sense of humor goes with redheads and green-skinned people. Man, that sounded racist." The blond quipped, before rolling under the slash of Megan's new blade arm. She growled as she stretched her clawed arm and used it like a whip to get Naruto's head. The blond flipped backwards, the claw's tip barely missing his whiskered cheeks.

"Is everything a joke to you?!" Megan asked as she stretched her blade arm at Naruto, switching from it to his other deadly arm to skewer the blond with.

Naruto stood his ground, using both swords to block, deflect and parry every single of Megan's attacks while trying to read her, '_Come on, there's something that has to work! She can read my mind, ok, I dealt with something similar. I just have to be faster._' And with that in mind, Naruto disappeared in a cloud of smoke just when one of the claws hit him square in the chest.

At first Megan felt content about stabbing the blond, but there was something wrong. For one, she had hit a log, and second, actually thinking that she killed the blond… '_What's wrong with me?! I'm supposed to kill him! Well, I'm supposed to take him to Batman, but… why- Damn it!_' she almost growled in frustration as she turned around and morphed both her arms. Her newly shape-shifted limbs were completely disproportionate to her body, being at least about five times larger than a regular human's, and judging by the tremors that shook the blond boy's arm when his right fist met Megan's new guarding arms, many scores heavier and harder as well.

Naruto bit back a large symphony of groans of pain, '_And this is what I get for being a nice guy and not wanting to use my swords._' He thought as he jumped back and tended his right hand, which knuckles were bleeding, "Ok, forgot you read minds… Um, this will take just one second." Naruto said before pulling out his wakizashi, putting the blade in his mouth, clenching it in his teeth… and then he charged at the girl! Rather than at least try to heal his injured hand, he simply ran at her with both his arms pulled back.

(PlayMetal Gear Rising: Revengeance OST - The Only Thing I Know For Real)

Megan smirked, "As if that'd-" her words dried in her throat when she watched as Naruto's mind was gone. The instant he ran at her, his mind was just gone. She crossed her arms before her chest and face, having them still in that shield form. '_What's wrong?! What did he-_' and then a loud yelp of pain escaped Megan. She looked down, the soldier of fortune had run at her, but gone down to the floor for a sweeping kick aimed at her knee. Naruto jumped up and tried to upper-cut her, but missed and by a lot. However, the blood from his injured knuckles got into Megan's face, blinding her. The Martian groaned at the sting in her eyes, morphing her hands in their usual human-like form to wipe the liquid off only to have Naruto pouncing on her like an animal. She looked at him in the eye…

Now Megan was truly terrified.

Naruto's usually cheerful deep cerulean eyes were gone, replaced by feral, furious blood red eyes with crimson slits for pupils. His whisker marks seemed thicker, and due to the blade he was biting Megan could see that his fangs had gotten larger and sharper. Now she knew what was wrong with him. He wasn't thinking anymore… he had actually gone berserk!

The blond raised his left hand to punch Megan. The wind escaped her gut instantly as she was now shaken off her initial horror. When Naruto lifted his right hand, which was now completely healed, she shifted her body's density to pass through the roof and avoid getting punched in the face. Naruto looked from the crater where Megan's head had been and lifted his nose, sniffing the air. The feral blond jumped to the side, avoiding a powerful wave of psychic energy intended to make him fall down the building. He got on all fours, sneering at Megan with his wakizashi still in his mouth. He bit on the blade harder and, just for a second, he calmed. The blond then got up into a hunched over position, his eyes still red while his arms were thrown at his sides like he was an animal ready to pummel everything in his way.

Megan noted that, '_The sword in his mouth, it's like a mental crutch._' She felt a slight shiver of fear running own her spine, '_He's not thinking at all right now, he's just become an animal! He barely has control over his actions right now!_' Megan shook her head, "Even if you became the animal you are, you're still a human!" she said, mostly to try to convince herself as she moved her palms forward and blasted the blond back with a psychic push.

Naruto rolled on his back, but instantly got back on all fours and lunged at Megan. The Martian gritted her teeth and threw everything she could at him, cars, tires, even parts of the building. Her shock and horror were greater when Naruto didn't avoid anything, he just punched and back-handed every single object out of his way. Megan almost let out a terrified cry when he lunged at her at inhuman speeds and took a swipe at her. And she wasn't hallucinating, Naruto's fingernails had grown into very sharp claws. She flew up in the sky, barely missing the blond who skidded to a halt on all fours and looked up at her, snarling.

"Shit." Megan cursed, uncharacteristic of her but she didn't have any other way to summarize her current situation, "Raven's more than capable to deal with him, she can pull as much tricks as-"

And just when he appeared before her, landing a powerful right hook to her gut did she remember that Naruto could teleport. She fell down with Naruto on top of her, making her stare at his crimson eyes before he started to slam his fists into her. She for once felt fear, true fear. He just wasn't thinking anymore, and what was worse, he chose to let go of whatever reason he had just to beat her. It was a terrifying thought, that he could change from that idiot who would try to be friends to this… this beast trying to make her feel true pain. Her lower lip was cut, she had a large bruise on her right cheek and her torso should sport several more. Each punch felt like a gun-shot at point blank, the blows even sounded like a shotgun being fired.

As she fell, she certainly didn't expect him to change again. He had grabbed her in his arms, carrying her bridal style when he landed on the ground with a loud thud. His breathing was accelerated, his heart was pounding and rather than seeming exhausted he was more shocked, as if he had woke up from a nightmare. Her head rested on his chest, listening as he forced his heart to calm down. He… He actually felt comfortable. He was warm, cozy and even the stench of sweat from all his fighting wasn't that bad. She blushed at how intense his gaze seemed to be on her, and it wasn't feral any longer but it was back to that same caring expression he had when she first met him.

And then, she finally lost consciousness. It was weird, just for one second, she actually thought he looked… handsome.

Naruto's eyes soon started to regain their natural color before he spat out his wakizashi, "D-Damn it…" were his first words when back to reason. '_I still can't control going full demon… Damn it, I almost killed Megan. Shit, I need more practice._' He looked down at the beaten Martian in his arms, groaning to himself, "I really shouldn't have done this… I know you can't hear me but… Sorry…" But, he had to admit, looking at the sleeping alien girl so peacefully resting in his arms, despite the injuries, she looked very, very, very cute. He blushed and shook his head, it seemed it really ran on the family to run into beautiful and deadly redheads.

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, back at the Titans' HQ, Batman growled as he looked at Naruto, "Does that damn kid not know what it means to give up?!" he slammed his fist on his chair, breaking its arm. '_He's beaten Superman's clone, who while still new to the power of a full Kryptonian should have defeated him with ease, and now he's defeated a Martian more than capable to give even me a challenge by consciously turning berserk?!_'

He sighed, taking a deep breath for a moment, until a shadow appeared behind him, "Master, remember that Raven is waiting for him. She's the most powerful out of all of us."

"I know, Robin." Batman said trying hard to control his anger, resting his cheek on his fist, "But this brat of Naruto. His power… No matter how I study it, he doesn't make sense. If it comes down to it, even I and the League should fight him. And yet, one problem remains despite our power, and that is how to have an advantage over him."

"I do not understand, Master."

"Robin… That power Naruto has, that limitless potential just waiting to be used and molded, it is far too good to be wasted. If the League were to have that power, we'd be unstoppable… But if I were to have that power… Heh, that old fool Ra's Al Ghul would even see things my way."

"I see… In any case, what should we do should he, dare I say it, defeat Raven?"

Batman nodded, looking intently at the screen with Naruto's image handing Megan to the police, who put one of those power restraining collars on her. He wanted to put the boy down once and for all, but the power he had was just something he couldn't waste… And then, an idea sunk in his head, "If Naruto doesn't join us by force, we could try new and better methods."

"Should I call Nightw-"

"Don't you mention that traitor's name in my presence." Batman cut the small shadow dryly, "He gave his back to me, a mistake I hope none of you follow."

"No, Master."

"Good, then get Alfred, tell him to get me a press conference tomorrow at Gotham's museum. Either Naruto wins or loses, the people need a hero to look up to."

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap!**

**Next chapter will be this arc's finale and the beginning of a new one! And boy oh boy am I pumped for the new arc. I'll try to get it out, but I also have a lot of fics waiting for me to do something. I'd also like to apologize for my lack of updates recently, but the current Naruto manga chapters… Yeah, some things are better left unsaid, but if I have to say something is that those last chapters hurt my soul. So for that I'm working on a one-shot fic just for the heck of it and to blow off some steam, it is a rather long one-shot but it's helped me to cool down.**

**And, quick question, any of you liked Tsundere Megan? I think I may have tried too hard, tell me your thoughts here.**

**Now, for some trivia. Why did I use those two songs? Well, Collective Consciousness was chosen to reflect Megan's view of mankind, that we're sheep who will only live by being led around, without any thoughts of our own thanks to those in control, that we are to blindly do as we're told. The second song, The Only Thing I Know For Real, is there to reflect Naruto's determination to fight despite losing everything he once held dear, just to try to survive.**

**Okay, you can call me cliché for trying to be deep when drama isn't my forte, but it's my fic, so I at least tried to find some meaning even if purposely making it pants-on-head retarded.**

**Swordslinger out!**


	10. Chapter 10

I OWN NOTHING, because if I did several superhero movies would be different.

**XXXXXX**

World's Most Stubborn Hero

Pamela started to stir in her half-asleep state. Her eyelids felt heavy, her fluffy pigtails were a mess, and she felt sore. All she knew was that she was in a rock floating in an eternal void. There was no life, no sign of anything save rocks floating around her. For once in her life she felt truly helpless, without any plan or way out.

"No…" she told herself, trying to fix her puffy mess of red hair, "I just have to wait. If Naruto's truly fighting to get me out then I guess I should think of rewarding him once I'm out." She was trying to calm herself with those words, but if- no, **when **he got her out of this mess she really wanted to do something nice for him… Like her special salad… Okay, she really needed to eat something. If her gun for hire brought her food, she might as well kiss him, though she'd have to find a way to avoid poisoning him. '_Well, he is rather cute._' She thought to herself, before shaking her head, '_Ugh, I've barely known him… I should think more about my project, though repaying him for helping me out of this will be as important… I'll date him if he brings me a vegetarian burger with apple juice._' She thought at last when her stomach grumbled again.

"Hi."

That monotone voice made Pam lose a heartbeat as she leapt into her own feet and stared at the figure before her. It was Raven, looking at the redhead through her shadowing hood. It was like meeting the Spirit of Future Christmas, but shorter and female, the appearance wasn't intimidating on its own but the simple aura that emanated of this one entity, this one girl… Shivers ran down Pam's spine. Raven reached up to her head and pulled her hood off to reveal who she was: a petite, short purple haired girl with pale gray skin and dark, emotionless purple eyes. There was a small red gem in her forehead, and she had a black leotard that hugged her figure tightly and emphasized on her cups, which were a cup size bigger than Pam's despite the environmentalist being half a head taller... Ok, there was a little inferiority complex there that the redhead ignored to focus on who was guarding her and had easily defeated her with dark powers. Well, there was not much to say about Raven's outfit except that it had sleeve that reached her hands but exposed her fingers with round red gems on the back of her hands, a pair of simple ankle high boots that matched her cloak, and a golden belt hanging from her waist with more of those round red gems adorning it.

Pam was even more surprised when the shorter girl levitated a tray of food to her, "You should eat. Your employee will arrive shortly."

The redhead's eyes snapped wide open and she felt her heart beating hard and fast, "He… I mean, Naruto's coming?"

"I shall be his final fight." Raven stated with a nod, "He has made it past all the others. Batman still has more members of the Titans, but due to his plans they won't fight the whiskered fool." She closed her eyes as Pam grabbed her simple meal of steamed vegetables with orange juice, not what she wanted but it was close, "It is said you're a vegetarian, do forgive me if I couldn't make anything else, our cook was beaten by your bodyguard." She said in the same monotone and was about to get out of this void.

"Wait, you seem reasonable enough, why are you being this nice?" the nature lover asked calmly as she sat down and started to eat, taking some time to speak, "I do appreciate the food, but I defeated your friend-"

"One, Terra and I were never friends. She just asked me for a favor and I decided to have her owe me something as an advantage." Raven stated coldly. "Two, you are needed alive to lure your bodyguard and keep him emotional, a simple psychological tactic. And three…" instantly, Raven's eyes glowed a dark red, and she grew an extra pair of said eyes, "Once my fight with Naruto is over, you will die under Batman's orders."

Rather than being intimidated, but still feeling scared by the demonic girl before her, Pamela did her best to steel her nerves and speak up, "That doesn't make sense when you think about it. What do you gain from all this? Why do you fight for Batman? Listen…" the redhead took a small pause to think, really unable to get this girl at all until she remembered one very important thing, "You can't be this cold… Even I can feel pity for others, but you actually chose to help that Terra girl because her boyfriend was going to be harmed, weren't you? And you're giving me food when your boss wants me dead."

Raven didn't reply, she just closed her eyes, returning to normal as she turned around and started to float up. Then she replied, "Eat your food. Whether Naruto lives or dies, you won't live long after he's dealt with. Consider this me pitying you."

Pam glared at the retreating girl and decided to have the push her buttons some more, "You don't think it'll be that easy, do you?" she asked, successfully stopping Raven in her tracks, "He beat Superboy, as well as the rest of your friends. That means there is more than a chance for him to defeat you. He may be a goof, carefree and never take most things seriously, but if he made it this far for me, then I have full faith on him. He might as well be too thick to know what it means to give up, and in a way, that's both strangely charming and scary, don't you think?" she said, before realizing one slip of her tongue. '_Strangely charming? Geesh, how corny can I get?_'

"Finish your food." The dark girl said before disappearing as a murder of crows in the shadows.

Pamela was left alone once again, but on the bright side she had food this time… Oh, it MAY be poisoned, but she had a killing kiss made of biological poison, her immune system wouldn't let this bother her. However, despite her initial hunger and that fact they could try to drug her, she had lost her appetite, "Please win, you whiskered doofus." She said as she poked at her food, wanting to see him already and get back home.

XXXXXX

After a quick sneeze, Naruto had finally arrived where the map told him to go, "Man, I hope some real lovely cutie is talking about me…" he said as he looked at his destination, "So, this is it?" Naruto said as he looked at the map he was given by Connor and led him to this place in the middle of the ruined city, "Arkham Asylum."

The structure before him was, as he just said, an asylum. It was towering, intimidating and just as dark as it was glorified. The entire place was surrounded by large walls with gargoyles decorating them as well as the building itself. Gothic architecture at its best was what defined it as well as the broken windows now covered with planks, the graffiti and lack of life. This was really a ghost town, and this place seemed to be where all the spooks would gather with how dramatic it looked. It was more a piece of forgotten art than a mental institution.

But Naruto wasn't here to admire architecture like he was a critic; he was here to break stuff if it pissed Batman, kick ass until his boots needed special polish for bat-buttocks smell, and save a redhead lovely. The order of his priorities may vary considering what he found first, but it'd be the same. He was here, Pamela was trapped inside this strange building, and that made him that much more determined to get in and get her out. Then his priorities would be finding fifteen cups of real, handmade ramen before a nap that by rights should be called hibernation once he woke up. He was tired, he was hungry, and this night had gone on forever.

"Yo, Bat-hole!" he shouted, aiming his finger at the nearest working camera he found at the entrance, which stared at him, "Are you ready to face me like a man, or will you just keep on hiding behind the Titans? Sooner or later you will have to give your face, and I plan on ripping it off for trying to harm Pam." He got no answer, but he was glad with at least saying his mind even if Batman didn't listen to him.

But he did listen to him, "_Clever little sneak, aren't you?_" the dark voice said calmly and sarcastically, "_You and I will meet, Naruto Uzumaki. However, I am not one to lower myself with your kind. Tell me, why should I have to dirty my hands fighting you? I prefer to think I am much smarter than that, I do not need strength or brawn to defeat my enemies, boy. All your fights, all your limits are mine to exploit. I can see your every weakness from the shadows and strike before you even know it. Those who are weak of both mind and power are just food for me, and you are just an idiot who swings his fists and swords around like an angry animal._"

"And you are nothing but a moron." Naruto stated calmly, looking bored, "All you do is talk, but all I listen to is bullshit from someone who doesn't have the balls to face me without a plan." He hooked a thumb to himself, "I will fight everyone you send me with all I got, fair and to the face, and when you have no-one else to hide behind in their shadows, I will beat your face in. That's my word, and I never go back on it."

"_Heh, you're either very brave or really stubborn._" Batman said, trying to hold back a growl at the boy's sheer determination to win.

"I just don't want you to win." The blond said, aiming a finger at the camera, "I don't know what kind of punishment you have for the Titans, or how you are planning to get to them in jail, but if you think I'll walk away from an asshole like you treating others like they're dirt, you're damn wrong. I won't leave Gotham City until I give you at least one good punch to your arrogant mug. That's a promise."

"_Insufferable little punk… Fine, go ahead, make my night_." Batman's voice said as the gates to the asylum swung open… and a dark claw of black magic was shot at Naruto.

"Damn it!" the blond cried as he unsheathed both blades and parried the blow by crossing both swords in front of his face, using his golden chakra on the blades for extra measure. He recognized the black matter as the same energy that dragged him through a vision of Hell or one of its rings in the police department. He gave a roar of power as he gave a loud step forward and threw the claw above his head, making it land on the hall's ceiling, creating a hole in it as debris fell down. And just like that, the claw disappeared, leaving Naruto the opportunity to see the insides of the facility… dark, gray, damp, and covered in steel and concrete so no soul could escape. It also seemed that the architect was fond of gothic art as the decoration and some gargoyles inside the building showed. If this was truly a madhouse, they should have brightened up the place so any suicidal person didn't feel like ending their life.

"_Have fun!_" Batman's voice sang, and just like that all communications were cut, only the cameras working so the people could watch the blond fight in this rather well decorated building. The doors were slammed shut once Naruto set foot, making him turn to find steel gates locking them for extra measure.

After the claw of dark magic tried to rip him to shreds, there didn't seem to be anything else to make this place that threatening.

XXXXXX

Raven sat in the darkness, hidden in the shadows, watching as a crystal orb showed her Naruto's actions. The purple head sighed, "A half-demon, huh? This could prove difficult… But he doesn't seem to tap much into his own power, more like he's into his own brawn." She mused to herself, before lifting up her right hand, which glowed with her magic, her eyes glowing white in the shadows of her hood.

"**Azarath… Methrion… ZINTHOS!**"

XXXXXX

Whistling the theme song of Luigi's Mansion was the only reasonable way our blond hero found of entertaining himself in a dark, intimidating building. "This is getting boring." He commented as he entered a hall, and he soon wished it stayed boring. The floor beneath his feet crumbled, leading to a pit with spikes on it. The merc reacted quickly by stabbing his wakizashi on one of the walls before using his chakra to wall-run out of the pit. "That was a bit too easy…" he said, knowing him surviving a death trap meant worse things to come. Murphy's Law arrived just to balance that. The shadows around Naruto moved, making him take a defensive stance. One of them materialized into a large claw, once again trying to either catch or crush the hanyo. Naruto instantly jumped over it and skidded to the other side of the hall. "Missed me!" he taunted, pulling down his left eyelid and sticking out his tongue at the dark energy limb.

Then a foot materialized on the shadow he was stepping on and kicked him right through the door behind him. Naruto's back hit a balcony's rail, preventing him from falling down two floors into the gardens. "Ow… Bit my tongue…" he groaned, holding his jaw as he let his healing chakra ease the pain, before looking around. He was still inside the asylum, behind him was a large garden with a maze of all things, large bushes serving as walls for people to get lost in. He would wonder who was the fancy rich guy who built this place later, now he was forced to flip backwards to avoid another claw swipe. Deciding to cut through, no pun intended, Naruto unsheathed his katana and sliced his way through the maze. If one thing was for certain was that someone had to be controlling the place and using dark magic to do so, so he had to find the one responsible and beat them up. A simple train of thought, but effective.

"_Naruto, isn't it?_" a voice asked him through the asylum's speakers, a soft female voice.

The blond stopped dead in his tracks, deciding that it was best to do what he was best known for: annoy. "Sorry, if you want to go on the first name basis in our first meeting, at least try to give me a date."

"_I can see you and Beastboy got along well…_"

"Fun little guy, I'd have invited him for some miso ramen were we not tasked to beat each other senseless… Man, now I'm starving." He said truthfully, holding his gut.

Raven looked intently at the figure in her orb, trying to figure him out, "_But you have to wonder, how much like us you truly are… After all, I can sense you aren't human._" the purple-head stated, making Naruto frown.

Naruto let out a weary sigh, "I know… Who knows what I am. But, who are you? Sorry, but if this is the first date at least try to give me a fair fight." He quipped, trying to keep his cool like the Wilson family taught him.

"_I am Raven…_" the girl replied a bit coldly, "_Now, before you turn into another comedian wannabe like your first two opponents, answer me something and be serious about it._"

Naruto tried hard not to snicker, "Yes, I'm still single."

"_I can see why_…" Raven quipped back, instantly hurting Naruto's ego, "_Now_, _why protect others?_"

"Why kill someone who you don't even know?" Naruto replied in a serene voice, calming himself and using his senses to find this girl.

However, Raven could sense it, "_Trying to find me? Ok, I won't even bother hiding. However, I want to ask you a few things as you walk here. Can I?_" and just like that, the maze disappeared, leaving an open path towards a set of stairs, leading to another facility of the asylum. Naruto didn't reply, but Raven asked, "_Were you born the way you are?_"

"No." the blond replied calmly as he walked forward.

"_Did you choose to be this way?_"

"I never got to choose a thing in my life, so what you see is me just doing what I can to live my life."

Raven closed her eyes, thinking well her next questions, "_Who turned you this way?_"

Naruto groaned, not liking the subject but he nonetheless replied, "My old man… Wish he was here, I'd like to punch him in the face… But at least he did it so many others could live. I kinda respect that, but doesn't mean I can still forgive him."

Raven took a deep breath, looking intently at the orb in her hand, before making it disappear with a simple thought. "How did you become this way?" she asked as Naruto stepped in through the door and faced her. Both were in a large library, the moon's light illuminating the place along flickering lights and a candle in a table. Raven had been reading in case he arrived, enjoying her peace and quiet until he kept on beating her teammates again and again. Now, it was just him and her, much to her surprise, she had to admit despite showing no emotion on her face shadowed by her hood.

The blond smiled, "I found a goal to fight for. After that, I just didn't want to stop." Naruto said as he held his katana by its sheath with his left hand, the right hand hovering over the handle. "And you?"

"A bit of the same… Only that I was born this way." She closed her eyes, as if in thought, before looking at Naruto through the shadows of her hood. "You are the first person I meet who is like me. I will say this much, thank you, for answering my questions." She then raised her right hand up to him, dark magic glowing from her palm, "But, unlike you, I don't need goals."

"Then what about dreams?" the blond asked with a stern look, ready to unsheathe his sword.

Raven didn't change facial expressions; she kept on staring coldly at him, which unnerved him. She just replied, "I'll show you my nightmares." Her eyes glowed white, as she chanted her spell, "**Azarath… Methrion… ZINTHOS!**"

The instant she said that, Raven glowed with her dark magic before letting it loose in a blast, covering the entire room in darkness, even Naruto. The blond stood there, swords still sheathed, as he tried to find where the next attack would come. The books shot themselves out of the shelves, the covers were instantly opened and the pages were flipped violently before an unseen force ripped them. The windows' glass was shattered in a million pieces and flew around Raven along the ripped paper. It then took form as it all swirled around the purple-head like a twister of chaos.

It was, to his eyebrow raising disbelief, a gigantic raven the size of an elephant with its sharps talons made of broken glass shards. He took a moment to grab his chin with a thumb and index finger, deep in thought, '_Dark, bluish hair, shows no emotion in order to be efficient in the battlefield, very beautiful, and controls paper…_' once done gathering his thoughts he finally asked, "Can you also make paper angels and origami?"

The large paper bird flew at him, using its wings to propel itself at mad speeds towards the soldier of fortune, Naruto let out a yelp as he leaned back to avoid the sharp glass claws from reaching his neck. The paper raven flew back to its master, flapping its wings to keep itself airborne. The dark girl looked stoically at her opponent, "Your wit truly knows no end." She said sarcastically, "If you keep this up, I might laugh at the joke about you defeating me."

Naruto cringed a bit at her attitude, "Man… good one. Cold, but still good." He finally unsheathed his sword as he watched for either the paper raven or the gothic Raven to make a move, "You know, you could be a bit livelier, we have just begun dancing in our first date."

Raven kept her cold emotionless face and stare firmly on the mercenary, "This is me being lively, can't you see my happy smile at the idea of dismembering and disemboweling you?" with a light nod from the master, the paper bird lunged at the blond.

Naruto breathed in deeply as he held his katana in both hands. In just one second Raven finally changed facial expressions as her eyes went slightly wider when the blond youth disappeared in a blur of pure speed and stood right beside her, singlehandedly sheathing his katana in slow motion. Once the handle met the hilt with a metallic click, Raven gasped as she saw her paper puppet split cleanly in half before falling down, but the gasp came mostly from Naruto's free hand firmly planted in her gut as a fist. The purple-head fell down on her knees, holding her stomach with both hands as she also tried to hold in her last meal.

Naruto stood by her side, adjusting his cap with the hand he used to punch her, "Sorry, but you're the last person between me and Pam. I'd like to take things easy and goof off, but it's been a long night." He instantly put the blade near the girl's throat, "Please, tell me where she is."

He paused, waiting for an answer, until he heard her speak in a different, deeper voice, "**Are you… afraid of the dark?**"

However, Naruto's punch had knocked her hood off her head, which caused his tongue to slip, "Man, you're awfully cute." The gun for hire was forced to flip backwards, even using his hand for a backwards cartwheel, in order to avoid a spike of black magic that managed to leave a small cut on the metal plate of his cap. "Ok, sorry, forgot I was being serious." He said actually sounding truly apologetic as he held his katana in a typical samurai stance. The shadows around him moved to life, shooting spikes and claws at him. Our blond doofus hero was forced to truly stick to business as he parried each blow as best as he could while trying to find Raven.

"Over here." Her voice, back to normal, said as she rose from a shadow behind him. He tried to do a sweeping kick, but she sunk back into the dark portal that was the shadow she had been in. He then grunted when a sharp pain got to his right side in the form of a claw trying to sink its fingers into his ribcage. Naruto struggled, but more and more shadows surrounded him before darkness swallowed him. One last thing reached him:

"You're mine."

XXXXXX

Slowly opening his eyes, Naruto grunted, rubbing his head, "Ugh… Did Wanda run over me with her moped?"

"Naruto!" someone cried behind him.

"Who…?" Naruto was awe-struck at first, before his face broke into his huge goofy grin, "Pam!" He didn't care or bother to look at the dark void in which both floated atop a rock. He raced at her, stopping inches from the environmentalist. It was her, no doubt about it, she smelled like flowers and forests. "Sorry…" he said, being genuinely regretful as he tried to keep on his grin, "My first day of work and I got you in so much trouble…"

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself…" Pam said calmly, "You left me in a police department, surrounded by a ton of cops, so none of us could have suspected someone trying to kidnap me and attack you. Before that you saved me from being strangled in the museum, and now, here you are, right with me. And according to what I've heard, you did a great job getting here through the Titans."

"It wasn't easy, and that last part..." he started, finding it hard to finish as he knew this had to be the part where something went from bad to worse.

Pamela easily read him, "Purple hair, gothic and dark powers… and standing right behind you!" she cried before tackling the blond to the ground as a large claw of dark magic swiped inches above them, missing them by the skin of their teeth. The blond would have wondered how was it that Raven escaped his senses, but he was much busier with Pamela's weight, warmth and softness pressed on his aching body, which could use more of those hands on his chest working on his back and pained shoulders… And damn were those lips- Ok, ok! He needed to focus… No, not on her blouse's cleavage!

He rolled around and got back along the redhead, "Thanks, I owe you one." He said as he helped her up.

"You may be paid to protect me, but I am no lady in distress." She replied with a smirk. "Now, please do tell me you have a plan." She said as they stared at Raven, who had grown several stories taller.

The purple-head was a giant easily the size of Kurama, and what stuck out most was the four red glowing eyes and her new red cloak. Naruto tried to grab his swords, only to find them and the rest of his gear gone. "Okay, she's smart too." he said dreadfully, '_If she didn't work for the Bat-hole, I'd ask for a date._' He stood between the giant Red Raven and Pamela, trying to figure out how to take this giant.

"Over here!" said a familiar voice. The Red Raven turned around and was blasted by dark magic, temporarily blinding her. Both Naruto and Pamela were at a loss, the Red Raven was fuming, trying to swat something in the air. As the giantess tried to find something to squash, several rocks flew towards the one the blond and the redhead were in, forming a path. Deciding to try his infamous luck, Naruto grabbed Pamela and carried her on his back, giving the green girl a piggyback ride as he jumped and dashed away from the angry Raven.

"This might be too much to ask, but what's going on?" Pamela cried as she clung to her mercenary's back.

"Your guess is as good as mine, now hold on!" he shouted as the enraged giantess noticed them and swung her fist at the blond. The hanyo jumped over the swing and used the fist as a step to jump over it and keep on running. '_Taking Pamela to safety is the biggest priority here; I'll deal with Raven if she still persists._'

However Raven did persist, she tried to grab the blond and his employer by swinging a dark claw at them. And Naruto proved to be as, if not more persistent with a quick jumping roundhouse kick to get the claw out of his way. Pamela held herself closer to the merc, her heart racing with the adrenaline of fear and action merging into her heartbeats. At this moment, she figured out why girls in action movies got clingy to the hero, the adrenaline in her heart did make the blond trying to save both their hides look very handsome. But it was a hormonal reaction, she told herself to calm her madly beating heart.

The giant dark magician got impatient, "**Azarath… Methrion… ZINTHOS!**"

"Oh for the love of-" Naruto started, but was cut short as he jumped over a murder of crows with four red eyes each trying to peck off bits of his flesh. The birds circled around and went right at him, their beaks opened and drooling. The crows got closer and closer, and the way back was blocked by the Red Raven's hand trying to grab him. He could use his Hiraishin, but he was in the middle of nowhere, and who knew where could be end in this bizarre place.

"Turn right!" said that familiar voice, which made the blond take a note from the Last Crusade movie and jump to the right, taking a Leap of Faith.

The Red Raven watched as she held something in her hand, something wet and warm. She opened her fist, thinking she caught the blond and he was nothing but a bloody pulp, but the large amount of feathers in the middle of the pool of blood along the lack of green skin and blond hair made her know that was not the case. The angry giantess destroyed the road Naruto had been in with her fist, before looking around for him.

XXXXXX

"Um… Ok, this is new." Naruto said as he walked along Pam in this new area.

Compared to the previous void of darkness and malice he had been in seconds ago, the blond didn't expect to find a place that looked about as fitting as a samurai in a western movie. This place was the complete opposite of the wasteland he had been in. The ground was not barren, but covered by rich soil and green grass. A few scattered trees and shrubbery dotted rolling hills in the distance that lead to dense foliage, along with the sounds of what he could only guess was a babbling brook as he traced a small stream. It was like a small exotic paradise teaming with life below an abundant blue sky, not a cloud in sight.

"You made it!"

"Gah!"

What followed was Naruto falling flat on his ass due to the shock of seeing a miniature green cloaked Raven floating right into his face. However, unlike the red one in the dark side of this place, this Raven was about eight inches tall, had purple human eyes, the normal set of two ocular orbs, and a large, confident, cocky grin all over her face that reminded Naruto a lot of his own when he was still going through the first stages of being a shinobi.

The green cloaked, fairy-sized Raven laughed, "Oh man, such a scaredy-fox!"

"T-That's n-not nice…" stuttered someone behind the green mini-Raven, it was a gray cloaked one, hunched over as she tried to avert her eyes from the blond and the redhead staring in disbelief at them, "S-Sorry…" she simply said before shying away, giving the merc a lot of déjà vu regarding a certain Hyuuga girl.

"It seems the guests have arrived, finally." Said another small Raven with a yellow cloak, but she had glasses in front of her eyes unlike her fellow small fairy-like sisters.

"You gotta admit, she's interested in a real cute one." Said a hyperactive pink cloaked fairy Raven.

"Okay, that's enough." Pamela said in a voice that reminded Naruto of the times Rose would scold him, Wanda and even Wade when the three did something they shouldn't, like filling the fridge with nothing but ramen, play with throwing knives in the house, or spend a lot of money for Bea Arthur merchandise. "You four… pixies… or whatever you are owe us an explanation and a way out."

"Oh, yes, sorry!" the pink cloaked one chirped, "But, first of all, I think we have something you might like, handsome!"

She materialized Naruto's gear in front of him, which the blond instantly grabbed. As he secured his stuff back in its place, and adjusting his cap, he finally asked, "Who are you?"

The spectacled one spoke, "We are Raven… Well, we're part of her. Each of us represent either an emotion or virtue from her."

Naruto raised a brow, "So… you're like her good side?" he asked, scratching his head.

The yellow one shook her head, "We are more like an organ, we keep her alive and are part of her, but we don't have much control on her actions."

"With the exception of the big red one you saw out." The green one said, "Let's just say, no matter how much ass we can kick in here, Big Sis is far stronger and far meaner."

The yellow one nodded sadly, "It terrifies me to say it, but she's the one Raven is, to put it simply, feeding the most. Each of us holds a part of Raven's true self, or whatever remains of it. However, as time passes, she's becoming more and more hateful. That's why we have a favor to ask you, Mister Uzumaki."

"Get us out of here and we have a deal." Naruto said simply.

The yellow Raven nodded, "Please… kill Raven."

Now was the time to have second thoughts, "Wait, what?!"

"Are you all out of your mind?!" Pamela asked in horror, not believing her own ears.

The gray one looked down, "Raven doesn't need to live any further… You have seen her; you know what she can do. The only reason she is working for Batman is because she has no other purpose. But you… you could end it all… Please… Please kill her." She pleaded softly, even whispering, but she did so in a sad sob.

Green nodded, "It'll help ease the pain, and it will avoid more of our big sister making her suffer."

Pink smiled, albeit doing so a tad bit sadly, "Don't worry, once Raven's gone you will be set free and she won't hav- Hey, where are you going?!"

Naruto had instantly turned around, marching back the way he came in, "HEY!" he shouted, using both hands to make himself heard, "HEY! GOTH GIRL! YOU LISTEN TO ME?!"

The yellow Raven panicked, "What are you trying to do?! We saw you killing Cyborg, so why-"

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted, aiming a finger and a glare at the miniature Raven, "Shut up! Just… shut your big fat cake socket!" he turned to the sky, shouting again, "Show yourself, you goth bitch! Or what?! Too afraid to actually talk to me face to face?! If you want me to kick your pasty ass, bring it here!"

Now Pam understood what happened, these four girls, even the one who tried to smash them, they were all part of Raven… "Raven… She wants to be killed?"

As her words escaped her lips, a familiar gigantic hand shot from the ground, grabbing an edge on the pit it made to rip a wider hole. The forest started to dry out, the trees died and turned pitch black as if flames had charbroiled them, the grass turned into dust on the barren ground, and from it, on the large platform she and Naruto had been standing on all the time, the giant red Raven moved out. The giant version of the dark girl was still in the hole from the waist down, looking with a death glare in her four red demonic eyes at the blond. A portal appeared before Naruto, and from it Rave stepped out, looking down at the blond who glared at her. She still bore no emotions, no single expression on her face. All she did was wave her hand, and her other selves started to vanish.

The gray Raven looked at Naruto, tears streaming down, "Just kill her… please…she needs to die…"

Naruto growled at what he heard as Pamela stepped back, this was Raven's world, and without any plants she couldn't fight at all. And yet, she was still surprised. He figured Raven out so easily, he was actually glaring at the goddess of this realm, and he had done so without any doubt in him. She had to admit it: the money for hiring him was worth it.

"Why?" the real deal asked simply.

Naruto replied sharply, "You think you're the only one?! You suffer because of being different, big deal! If you have time to pity yourself and cry about it, then do yourself a favor and look for a life! Write some poems, kick some ass, go kiss whatever idiot you find like a good catch so long as he cares for you, I don't care but don't do one thing: don't compare me to you!" he roared, actually pissed as if the red giantess behind the one who practically owned this place wasn't there to show the control Raven had over this realm.

Pamela was confused, '_This… This is personal, whatever she did, she actually hurt him when asking him to kill her… Naruto, who… what are you?_'

Raven's eyes glowed red, "You and I are the same kind of monsters, we weren't born to choose our life… So why is it so hard for you to kill me?!" finally, Raven was showing her main emotion, anger, "You must know of this pain, you must know what it feels like to have your life stolen from you before you had it! So why live in a world like this?!"

Naruto looked sternly at her, "Because I chose to."

Raven grew her extra pair of demonic eyes, the darkness increasing, "Then I'll force you to choose, your life or mine."

Instantly, Naruto summoned a clone that picked Pamela up bridal style and jumped away with her as the real Naruto dashed. The purple-head's giant version reared her head back, her mouth opened, and when she brought her face forward she shot a river of fire at the blond from her lips. The clone used his Hiraishin to get to a far away platform while the real Naruto used his own to disappear from view. Even from the platform, the green skinned environmentalist felt the horrible heat; it was like the inside of an oven. Though the flames were several yards away from them, she could feel them as they scorched through her flesh, as if they were burning her up. The clone grunted as he turned his back and tried to shield her from the heat's source.

Naruto turned to his opponent, dashing behind her with a fist reared back and saw that her giant version had practically created a wall of fire separating him from Pamela. His clone and the redhead could not back him up, and it seemed that's what Raven wanted, to fight him and only him. The hanyo quickly jumped high into the air and tried to axe-kick the real purple-head, but the giant quickly turned around and swatted the blond away. He rolled on the ground to break his fall before getting to his knees and charging again while Raven raised her hands and shot a blade of dark magic at him. Raven watched as he disappeared in another yellow flash and landed beside her with a roundhouse kick aimed to the back of her head.

"Wrong." She said, as she used her magic to block his kick with a shield, "You have to go for it seriously. The only thing that can kill me is another like me… Don't give me any mercy and just finish me off." The blond growled as he spun around and used his elbow and entire arm to lash at Raven's face like it was a whip, only for her dark magic to stop his strike once again, angering her. "You idiot! Your life and that of your friend are on the line! If you don't kill me you'll never get out!"

'_Damn it, that magic of hers is like Gaara's sand defense! But if every defense can be broken, then why did she choose me to kill her…?_' and then it clicked. He jumped away in order to avoid any danger as he grabbed his katana and held it skywards with both hands, "So, only a half-demon can get past a half-demon's defenses, huh? That's why you want me to kill you, because I have the method to do so."

"And here I thought your head was emptier than this place." Raven replied with her ever-present cynical attitude. "You must get past this damned shield. I have tried everything I could to end my life, so just go ahead and finish the job, or is it that hard to just kill me?" she was already losing her temper, as her red counterpart growled, "No matter what I do, my own demonic side won't let me die, I just want this all to end, so just go ahead and kill me!"

"No, the hard part's not killing you." The blond said as he took off his cap and threw it away as he tied his bandana on his forehead, "But I guess I can cheat." He raised his index finger at the cloaked girl. "One tail should be enough." He said cryptically as he put his hands in a simple hand-sign he learned with a fellow Jinchuuriki.

The giant got enough of the punk trying to hurt her real self and tried to rush him under her fist. What followed was a cloud of smoke rising from where her fist hit the ground where Naruto stood once, seconds before a red blur spun around all the way up to her shoulder and lashed at her. The giantess roared as something had slashed madly at her arm, leaving claw and cutting marks all over before leaving a large cut on her cheek. The red blur jumped down and showed… a fox, a very big fox. Its body was easily the size of a horse, his entire fur was a dark orange, almost like blood, and his bright crimson eyes stared at Raven through slit pupils. There were strange black marks around its eyes and on its ears, but what one would note the most was three things: its front paws ended in almost human hands with red fur and black claws, it carried a familiar wakizashi in between its sharp fangs, and its eight foot long tail carried a katana, using its furry tip wrapped around it to hold it up as the furry appendage swished from side to side.

(Play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance OST – It Has To Be This Way)

Before Raven could comment on anything that was happening the red fox that was Naruto dashed at her at inhuman speeds rivaling Kid Flash's. She groaned as her own magic moved against her will and made a shield, only to gasp when the red fox jumped and spun around like a drill, coming faster and faster at her. She watched as the wakizashi in the beast's mouth managed to get past her shield, making her gasp when her right cheek was cut. Her eyes were wide in a mixture of surprise and awe as she held her bleeding cheek.

Pamela gaped, "How did he do that?!"

The clone smiled, "That's the boss' kitsune form. He may not be as strong as usual, but he becomes faster than lightning."

The red beast skidded to a halt and circled around, only for the red cloaked Raven to growl as she used her good hand to try to squash him and keep him away from her real self. Raven growled, "No! Let him go! I want him to finish me off already!" she cried to her giant version, but the four-eyed self ignored her. And when the giantess let out a mighty roar, the red fox let out his own roar and lunged at the giantess, doing like her and ignoring Raven for the moment.

The half-demon dashed at her with his lightning speed, and truly he seemed to be a red bolt. As the titanic purple-head saw her charging at her, she swung one of her gigantic arms at him. A howling wind came from it as it came closer, showing she was determined to pummel the much smaller enemy. Pam froze when she saw that rather than trying to leap out of the way, Naruto just stood there, like an idiot. But then, he just ducked under the swing and kept on sprinting at the giantess, aiming at her stomach.

The red fox roared and attacked, he swooped with his claws at the red cloaked girl, making her gasp as her flesh was being ripped and cut. His tail followed the onslaught with his katana swishing madly, slashing the Titan's other self's flesh with the blade. Again, the four-eyed demonic girl was in pain, gasping for air as she fell down, using her arms to stop her fall and for support. Naruto got out of the way and dashed around her, creating a blur around the even angrier self. And so, the magician used her magic, again. This time, spikes of dark energy shot from the ground, trying to impale the kitsune who did his best to dash around them by using his senses as best as he could. All Pamela could see was a red blur moving in a zigzag pattern at speeds impossible to follow with the naked eye.

"**Azarath! Metrion! Zinthos**!" the red self shouted as she moved her hands at the blond.

A soaring ethereal blade of dark magic flew at him, taking the whole ground to get as much space as it could to prevent him from escaping. Naruto replied by using his tail and the katana it carried to block the magic blast. The force behind the attack was enough to push him back, so he had to dig his claws on the ground to attempt keeping the energy blast away from him. Pam and Raven were amazed at the fact Naruto was just using his tail to block such a powerful strike as if it were nothing.

The red fox let out a roar and flung the dark blade away and into the dark skies, just as if it were nothing and completely giving the middle finger to physics. Naruto managed to find an opening, and took it. The red fox managed to quickly dash in the giantess' guard and jumped up right to her face. He swung his body around delivered another powerful strike, this time on her shoulder blade. The purple-head hissed in pain as Naruto leapt backwards incase of another follow up blow. When he was at a reasonable distance between Raven, Naruto looked at her shoulder. There, where Raven was struck, was a perfect cut that made her let out a cry.

_'Seems like he is finally serious about this_…' the real Raven thought as her raging self stretched her sore arm. '_Maybe I will finally rest, forever…_.' When her other self was finished stretching her arm, Naruto targeted the giantess again.

She had her blood red eyes narrowed dangerously. "**Enough! You won't harm her, no-one will.**" She cried as she slammed her hands on the ground, causing a large tremor that unbalanced the red fox.

He was blasted straight in the chest by a dark beam that sent him flying back, the red cloaked girl smirked cruelly as she swung her arm to her side and summoned several of her black crows which flew at him with their maws ready to take off every bit of his flesh. Naruto let out a pained howl when he fell down and the birds tried to rip him to shreds, barley able to move. He fought against the intense pain, and struggled to his feet. He was wobbly, and had difficulty trying to keep his balance.

_'Damn…. She got me_!' He thought, looking at Raven with his none lazy eye. _'I…I can barely walk, even less fight_!' he finally god mad, '_Like Hell I'll lose to someone like her!_' Naruto growled as he swung his body around for a violent spin, using his blades and claws to rip the birds to bloody ribbons and finally getting them off. He was bruised and some blood dripped from his body, but he was still holding that look that said 'I'm not going to give up until I get what I want' in his eyes.

Seeing as this was going to be hard no matter how he looked at it, he pumped chakra into his feet and lunged forward. The dark girl saw the charge, but unfortunately for her, Naruto was still far faster, and appeared before the red girl. With a strong head-butt, Naruto rammed into Raven's gut, sending her stumbling backwards. The girl managed to stay on her own feet, so to speak. The wind was temporarily knocked out of her. Naruto observed her next moves, knowing that may have just been a lucky shot. Red Raven breathed heavily, and looked up at the guy her real self wanted to kill. He was breathing heavily, no doubt from all the fighting he had experienced in this long night.

_'She hasn't been holding back on me, guess I should do the same too_.' He thought as he glared defiantly at the giant, just as he was about to sprint away. But just before he got the chance, Red Raven appeared before him. He locked eyes with Raven, letting more of his demon chakra out, the red ethereal energy radiating off of his entire body, dancing around him as if it was flames. The bruises and bites on his flesh started to fade away, to Raven's surprise. His wounds began to heal, and his posture straightened up. Then, a second tail sprouted out of his backside, and trashed around with the other one. It seemed he might need to go overkill.

Red Raven stared at him with a mixture of amazement and terror. And when he popped his neck, he smirked before he disappeared in another red blur. Red Raven raised a dark shield around her. She saw Naruto, but he was moving so fast that the only thing she could see was red of light streaks zipping around everywhere. And just like that, she watched as her shield was shattered and felt a large gash opening in her gut, making her cry. Suddenly, Naruto appeared and delivered a head-butt into Raven's face, sending the red girl rolling back. She stumbled backwards and clinched her now bleeding stomach. But when she looked up, Naruto was gone. He was off again, zipping all around the area at greater speeds.

"**No…. I won't be taken down that easily**!" Red Raven growled in her head, as she held both her hands forward, "**AZARATH! METRHION! ZINTHOS!**"

What Raven did was best described as a nuke. She released all of her power at once in a concentrated blast. The red fox couldn't evade it and was sent flying far away from her, bruised badly, '_Ugh…Fine, that's it!_' he stomped on the ground with his four feet, glaring at the red cloaked girl with a scowl. He dropped his wakizashi and opened his maw, concentrating chakra before him. The Red Raven knew what he was about to do and focused her magic around herself while Naruto kept on building up chakra.

Pamela, who had been speechless during the whole fight, felt herself being pulled by the clone farther away from the fight. She heard him mumble something that made her blood freeze. "Damn it, boss, just don't kill her." That line alone made her wonder and fear what Naruto could do.

The two red enemies threw forward their attacks, Naruto releasing the energy in a powerful blast known as the Bijuu Dama while Raven used her magic to try to block the attack with a blast of her own. When the two collided, a huge explosion of smoke, gravel and chakra detonated in the center of the area. Chunks of dirt and rock scattered all over the place, landing inside and outside of the rocky platform. Then, as the smoke cleared, a humanoid figure stood up, walking outside. And when the smoke cleared, two large craters were seen on opposite sides of the battlefield. The original Raven lost a heartbeat, literally, as she watched who moved out of the crater.

It was her dark self, breathing heavily. She was horribly bruised, her body was very badly beaten and carried a few burns from the blast, and there were several gashes in her outfit. However, Naruto was nowhere in sight, and she knew it wasn't good. "**Where are you? Show yourself!**" the giantess cried, and then felt an extra weight on top of her right shoulder. Naruto had leapt into her back, which allowed him to throw his wakizashi in the air and viciously attack the titanic girl's face, biting and clawing. Just as he was about to be swatted away, he leapt back and used the momentum to deliver a powerful lash with his tail at the giant Raven's face, making her cry.

The giantess shook her head and tried to fight back, only to watch the speeding red blur coming right at her and deliver another powerful head-butt, this time right into her forehead. Pam gaped at what she saw, Naruto's skull had to be very thick to not be crushed from the speed and force he used, because he had used enough force to sent a twenty story giant girl flying back and land in a heap. As the fox landed, he did shake his head to show the head-butt hurt even him.

The giantess was down and out, the small audience watched as her dark powers left her, shadows flying from her body and into the sky, turning her into her other self's real size. The fox let out something between a growl and a groan as he shook his head and, with a cloud of smoke, turned into Naruto, who sheathed his swords calmly.

The real Raven sighed, "Good… You won." She then extended her arms to her side, "Without her in the way, I can finally die. Please, go ahead, finish the job and you'll be free."

Naruto groaned as he turned to the one who started this whole fight. Pamela was let down on the floor and the clone dispelled himself. The redhead watched as Naruto actually moved to the purple-head, grabbed her by her collar, glared furiously at her, right in her purple eyes… and head-butted her into unconsciousness!

"You're not the boss of me!" he growled, spitting on the ground as he let the real Raven fall down on the floor and went to Dreamland.

However, the instant Raven was taken down, the ground trembled below his feet. Naruto yelped when the floor started to shatter itself like glass before he fell down into the bottomless darkness of this realm. But, as he plummeted into the dark void, he listened to a dark, male voice echoing in his head. In a way, it was similar to the red cloaked Raven, booming with power and darkness, but at the same time it held actual gratitude and even kindness. Just as the blond thought he was done for, he found himself stepping outside of Arkham Asylum. Before him was Raven, laying in a deep slumber from the head-butt on the ground with her cloak covering her from the cold, and at his side was Pam, just as equally shocked as he was.

He had heard that voice say just one word: "**Thank you.**"

**XXXXXX**

**And that's my rap!**

**So, long chapter is long, sorry if I didn't put much in the fight department and I made things far too cryptic. Yes, I admit this needed some build-up, and that I may have rushed it to finish this arc, but whatever questions raise here will be answered in future chapters. Sorry if I didn't dwell too much into Raven and her back-story, but like with the other Titans I plan on leaving it for future chapters, and I thought that here the "Less is more" could work. I might redo this chapter, but be merciful; I was really struggling to work this fight.**

**Next arc will be the deal for a cleaner Gotham and more airtime for Pam, as I know some of you have torches and pitchforks ready for not developing her enough in this chapter.**

**Swordslinger out!**


End file.
